Monster Hunter International: The Pack
by Arlux1313
Summary: Several years after Monster Hunter International: Encounters, and the outbreak in New York City. James 'Jimmi Hendrix' Woods had a seemingly bleak outlook on life. That was before he and his closest friend Matt Reese were attacked by werewolves. Now they're the newest recruits for Monster Hunter International. But the two stirred up the hornets nest of the worlds largest pack.
1. Chapter 1

You know, sometimes life can be really difficult. Take mine for instance. Before I did what do now, I thought my life was pure hell. I lived in what I had to say was the worst part of New York state. Fulton was absolute garbage. The lowest of the low, people who only rely on food stamps and absolutely refuse to work. You know? Racist hicks who drink Pabst Blue Ribbon like water. I lived with my mom, which wasn't really a bad thing. Mom isn't really a bad person, it's just really difficult for her to find work where we lived. Plus I had a sneaking suspicion that for the longest time she was really sick. Odd thing was, she never missed a car payment, or a bill payment. My dad who is a gunnery sargent in the United States Marine Corps had divorced her years ago. My step-mom Marlyn kicked ass, and I desperately wanted to go and live with the two of them. Currently they lived on the Marine base in Fort Bragg with my two half-siblings Jillian and Anthony. Unfortunately, my mom had gotten custody by some condition in the divorce hearings. Like I said before, it wasn't a bad thing really, I just wanted to go and live with my dad more than I wanted to live with my mom. I mean yeah, I got to see dad from time to time, but the last time I really saw them was when I was 15. That was at my Grandpa Wood's funeral

Then my life took a good turn. I was out of high school, I got accepted into Syracuse University thanks to my dad pulling the strings. Still there was something that really pissed me off that happened before I left. My dad told me that my grandpa had left me something in his will. His 1968 model Mustang, and his house in Manhattan. I was kinda mad that mom had never told me about what Grandpa Woods had left me in his will. Okay yeah let's be honest, there was a pretty bad argument between me and mom. She said that we couldn't afford to live in Manhattan, and the taxes we would have to claim the house and car would have set us in the hole real deep -I know, phrasing.- By then I was staying in a small apartment close to campus, splitting the rent with my friend Matt Reese. For some odd reason, when I went to claim what Grandpa Woods had left me in his will, there weren't any tax implications. I didn't have to pay one cent for that car.

There's a small little shooting range just outside Baldwinsville New York. Matt is a huge gun nut just like his father, and had gotten me hooked as well. It was the spring semester of our junior year at SU, but it was still cold out, so I was wrapped up in a black UNSC hoodie. Don't judge me, I love the Halo franchise. I killed the engine of the Mustang that my grandpa left me in his will, and shuddered when the cold air hit me. I think I liked the warm temperature of my car than the cold weather outside. Matt's late model Ford Crown Victoria was right behind me.

"Whoo! Damn it's cold!" Matt exclaimed before he popped open his trunk, and I did the same.

My trunk had an assortment of things. My backpack, that had my laptop, and a few course books. Classes had just ended for the day. When Matt and I didn't have work after class, we'd always stop by this little range. Kind of a daily ritual so to speak. There was a duffel bag with clothes that needed washing, and another filled with ammo, that had a small little padlock around both zippers. Underneath that were my gun cases. I had a pair of lever action 1887 shotguns in one case, I had a love of Old Western movies, and an 1887 shotgun was the closest I was gonna get to an Winchester repeater rifle with the budget I had. I also had a single-shot variant of an AR-15. I say single-shot, being that it was illegal to own an automatic weapon in New York State. But probably the most expensive weapons I had were my pistols. I had a Glock-19 9mm, and a Browning, also another 9mm. I had another pair of pistols as well. A pair of of Colt Peacemakers that my grandpa had left me in his will along with the Mustang, and his house in Manhattan. I still had no idea what I was going to do with that house. There was no way I could afford to live in it. Hell I could barely afford my last handgun.

"You good Jimmi?" Matt asked taking his gun cases out of the trunk of his Crown Victoria.

I rolled my eyes. Matt had continuously called me Jimmi Hendrix since our Freshman year in high school. I wear a Jimmy Hendrix shirt one day, and it sticks for six goddamn years. It stuck, and it sucked for the first couple of weeks but I eventually got used to it. "Yeah Hayden. I'm good."

"Oh you son of a bitch." Matt said laughing. My friend had a striking resemblance to Hayden Christiansen. The guy who played Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequal trilogy. "Come on, enough standing around here freezing our nuts off. Let's go shoot some guns."

 _CRACK!_ My AR-15 hit its target what seemed to be millimeters from the bulls-eye. I exhaled once again, at the same time squeezing the trigger. My rifle expended its final round with another loud _CRACK!_

"Damn I wish I could shoot something automatic." Matt said, as he unloaded a shortened FAL into a target of his own.

"As long as that gun law exists, civilians like you and I won't ever get our hands on automatics. At least not legally." I said, as I unloaded my rifle, flicked its safety back on, and switched to my Glock-19. I squeezed off the fifteen rounds that I had loaded into the pistol's magazine.

"Yeah. That's the sucky part. Oh hey check this out, I bought it from Intimidator's, and the paperwork just came back on it." Matt pulled out a H&K Tac 45 tactical variant. Ten round magazine, elevated sights, desert camo finish, and a threaded barrel for a mounted suppressor.

"You lucky bastard. How the hell did you afford that?" I asked, as we worked in the same place. We worked part time at Dinosaur Barbeque downtown to help pay rent, pay off student loans, oh and the most important thing which was purchasing guns. "Plus why did you buy it? I thought you didn't like H and K weapons."

"I had to save up for a few months." Matt replied. "Trust me it was a bitch and a half, but the wait for the paperwork to come back sucked worse than saving up for it. But it's my dad that doesn't like H and K. He calls 'em 'over-hyped and over priced German garbage'. But me, I think they're reliable. They're well made, and they rarely ever break."

"That's German engineering for you." I said, as I reloaded one of the two 15 round mags I had for my Glock. Oh sure, it wasn't legal to keep a full 15 rounds in a sidearm magazine -the limit for a civilian is 7- but seriously who is gonna say anything? Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my Glock, but I would have really loved to get my hands on a sidearm that was chambered for .45 ACP. Matt's dad had a beautiful set of twin 1911's, that he had let me shoot when he taught me how to fire pistols. I was in love with those sidearms at first shot, and was desperately looking for a .45 of my own, preferably a 1911.

"Hey," Matt began, as he loaded the 10 round magazine of his new Tac 45. "Why don't you ever fire your grandpa's peacemakers?"

"Because." I explained. "His will stated that for some reason or another, I should only use it in an extreme situation, and that I would know when that was."

"Oooo cryptic." Mat said, as he fired his new sidearm.

It was late in the afternoon, when we decided to call it a day at the range. Our weapons were put on safety, and secured in our cases. We made our way back to our cars, when we heard loud growling from behind us. And that made us pause. The owners of the range never had any dogs, so what was growling? There was nothing there when we turned around, but then I saw Matt shake my shoulder. He pointed to the roof of the range's main building. Standing there in a low crouch, was a dark brown furred…

"If I'm seeing things correctly, that's a goddamn werewolf…" Matt said his voice shaking.

"And… I think we're in its sights." I very slowly undid the clasps on one of my 1887 cases. The werewolf noticed, and with a long howl, it launched itself at us. My case thudded against the ground, and my shotgun was in my hand. I pulled the trigger, and the werewolf sailed over our heads, with the exception of its left arm. That came off at the shoulder.

"Dude you fuckin' shot it!" Matt's tone was a mix of shock, horror, and excited.

"I don't think it's dead. I might have just pissed it off." I replied with my tone matching Matt's.

"How the hell do you know that!?"

"You don't know about supernatural creatures!?" I asked incredulously, as Matt shook his head. "You need silver to kill a werewolf!"

"We don't have anything silver!" Matt yelled, as the werewolf got back to its feet, growling in a way that meant it was incredibly pissed off. "And I think we're in trouble!"

The werewolf launched itself at us again, and I pulled back on the lever, and blasted at the one armed werewolf. Buckshot caught it in the abdomen, and it sailed over us again coming to a rolling stop several feet away from us. I tossed my 1887 to Matt.

"Keep an eye on that thing." I said placing my keys into my trunk, pausing to look at grandpa Wood's peacemakers. Out of curiosity, I took one out of the holsters, and looked at the chambered rounds. They were a real bright, shiny metal. I took the second one out of its holster, as Matt said something about the werewolf getting back up.

"Whatever you're doing back there, hurry the hell up!" He pulled the lever on my 1887 down, then back up to chamber the next round.

I was back at Matt's side aiming one of the Old Western revolvers at the werewolf that was slowly getting back up, but bleeding everywhere. "I think grandpa had these things loaded with silver bullets. Only one way to find out though." I pulled the hammer back, and pulled the trigger. The werewolf dropped with a surprised and painful yelp, and this time it didn't get back up.

"Silver bullets… Dude your grandpa knew what he was doing." Matt said, as he placed my 1887 back into it's case, then back into the trunk of my car.

"Matt I don't think we're done yet." I said, as I raised both Peacemakers. I heard more growling coming from behind the main building. I was right saying that we weren't finished. Four more werewolves jumped onto the roof, growling clearly infuriated that one of their pack had been killed.

"Feeling up to sharing Jimmi?" Matt asked back at my side, and I handed one of the silver-loaded revolvers to him. The wolves launched themselves at us, and the both of us opened up on the werewolves. Two werewolves dropped, but the other two scattered. They began to circle us, and we didn't fire. We only had two guns with silver bullets, and we didn't want to waste them. One of the wolves launched itself at us, and we ducked. I got my revolver up just in time to shoot it in the jaw. The silver bullet exited through the top of it's head, and it dropped to the ground dead. Then there was one wolf left. It was hiding behind Matt's Crown Victoria, and in a stroke of brilliance, Matt fired twice, catching the wolf in the legs under the bottom of the car. The werewolf collapsed to the ground as the silver bullets tore through its legs.

"Hey, hey. Let's finish it off with some style." Mat said as we moved in for the kill.

"What do you mean?" I asked, taking caution to stay out of reach of the wolf's claws.

"Ever seen the Boondock Saints?" He asked, and a smile crossed my face. We placed my grandpa's revolvers against the back of the werelolf's skull, and recited the MacManus brothers prayer.

" _And shepards we shall be._

 _For thee, my Lord for thee._

 _Power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command._

 _So we shall flow a river forth to thee._

 _And teeming with souls shall it ever be._

 _In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti"_

The two of us pulled the trigger once each, and the fifth werewolf dropped to the ground dead.


	2. Chapter 2

The two of us must have been interrogated by cops for over an hour, until a black SUV pulled up. Two men in cheap off the rack suits, stepped out, flashed their credentials, and the cops backed off. These two guys just screamed Federal Agent. One fed looked like DJ Cotrona, the actor who played the character Flynt from G. I. Joe Retaliation. The other fed was a huge gorilla of a man with a sour expression that said he didn't want to be here right now.

"Good evening gentlemen." The DJ Cotrona look alike fed said as a matter of greeting. "You two seemed to have handled yourselves rather well, and I commend you for what you did. However there's a reason myself and my partner Mr. Franks are here." The smaller fed gestured to the large sour looking man he called 'Franks.'

"Gentlemen, Mr. Franks and I are with an agency you've never heard of called the MCB. Standing for the Monster Control Bereau. Any time an individual encounters any sort of supernatural creature, we're dispatched to … Shall we say 'persuade' the survivors to stay silent."

Matt and I shared a look of confusion at what this fed had just said, and it was Matt who asked the question that was on both our minds. "What do you mean Mr…?"

"Locke." The Cotrona agent said. "James Locke. I am acting director of the MCB, and when I said 'persuade' what I am actually attempting to say is that you can never tell another living soul about what had happened here tonight or … And this is the part I really don't like saying…"

"He means shut up, or we'll kill you." Agent Franks said in a deadpan tone, and I felt a chill go down my spine at his words.

"Exactly what Mr. Franks said." Locke said sighing heavily. Seemed like he really didn't like to have to say that, and I really don't want to know how heavy his heart must have been when he had to give Franks the order to take someone out who talked about their encounter with a supernatural creature.

"However gentlemen, there is some good news. In a few moments, another car will pull into the lot. Someone else who survived a monster attack is going to step out and offer you a job." Locke said, which made me confused.

"Wait hold on a second. You just said that you'd kill us if we talked about what we just went through." I said looking from Locke to Franks.

Locke shook his head. "Only if you talked to someone who hadn't encountered a supernatural creature. You aren't in violation of the Federal Act that allows us to execute people who speaks of their encounter with a supernatural entity, if you speak about it with someone who has already had an encounter with a supernatural entity of their own."

"Well then what do these people who are about to offer us a job do then?" Matt asked, and Locke shook his head.

"It's not my place to say." He replied, as a black colored Shelby Cobra pulled into the lot next to the feds SUV. "Oh good he's here. We can go now Franks."

Franks grumbled as he made his way back to the SUV, as two people got out. A man and a woman. The man was about a head taller than me, he had long black locks, a soft expression, and wore a light grey zip-up hoodie over a faded Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger shirt. The woman who was with him was beautiful. Her hair was dark brown and tied into a single braid, her eyes were hidden under a pair of silver lensed aviator shades. She had a very smokin' body, and I really didn't want to stare at it, because I didn't want to get smacked across the face.

"These them?" The man asked Agent Locke.

"All yours Alex." The fed said, and to my surprised he and this Alex guy bumped fists, before Locke got into the SUV and drove off.

"What's up guys?" This Alex guy asked as he stepped up to us, and I recognised him. He was at my grandpa Woods' funeral. I bet the woman was too, but she was inspecting the five wolves all laid out. To our surprise, the woman then had a gun in her right hand. A compact H&K USP .45 with a silver slider. She squeezed the trigger five times, moving her arm from left to right as she put a bullet into each of the five werewolves.

"Don't mind Clare. She's only making sure that we don't get any surprises." Alex explained. "It's a pretty standard thing for MHI."

"Um what the hell is MHI?" Matt asked eyeing the sidearm in Clare's hand, as she holstered it in a holster on her belt.

"MHI." Clare said as she walked back up to Alex. "Is the freelance company Alex and I work for. It stands for Monster Hunter International. Basically what we are, are bounty hunters of the supernatural."

"So you guys go all around the world hunting down and killing monsters like werewolves?" I asked Alex, who nodded.

"Yeah James. That's exactly what we do."

That settled it. "You were the guy at my grandpa's funeral."

"Yeah that was me. Clare was there too." Clare waved, wiggling her fingers, and I saw a golden band around her left ring finger. So she was married. Then I saw another golden band on Alex's left ring finger, meaning that the two had to have been husband and wife. "Your grandpa helped us out during the incident in New York City. Guy fought like hell, fought better than the rest of us, and he wasn't even a Hunter. I remember alongside that house in manhattan, and that beauty of a car you two are sitting on, he left you a pair of Colt Peacemakers in his will."

"Those things saved our asses today." Matt said, gesturing to the set of pistols that were laying holstered on the hood of the mustang my grandpa left me in his will.

"Wait, hold on a second." I said completely stunned. "How did you know about what Grandpa Woods left me in his will?"

"Your grandpa, while only knowing us for a short time, was a good friend." Alex began. "He wanted us to watch out for his family when he couldn't do that anymore. Basically speaking, bills, payments, small things like that. We also kept the house and car he left you well cared for, and payed whatever it was for the taxes on the car when you went to claim it."

I just stood there completely stunned into silence. These guys were watching out for my family -ie, my mom and me- my entire life? I would have asked why they didn't make their intentions clearer sooner, but then remembered what Locke had said about what would happen if someone who had no encounter with the supernatural, was told that things like werewolves and vampires existed.

"You alright James?" I heard Ale ask from seemingly somewhere far away.

I managed to nod, and a few seconds later found my voice. "Yeah… It's just some things are making more sense now. But can we get back to what just happened with these wolves?"

"Yeah and about that." Clare said. "Locke told us that you two dropped all five of these werewolves by yourselves, and didn't get a single scratch on you. Now that's impressive for an untrained civilian."

"Do um … Do most people get their asses handed to them on their first encounter?" Matt asked. I noticed that his voice was shaking slightly.

"Oh hell yeah." Alex said. "The first monster I went toe to toe with was a vampire, and that son of a bitch kicked my ass something good. Cracked ribs, twisted ankle, my right leg got snapped. I was holed up for almost two months after that."

"Well your friend said that you guys were offering us a job. Would we be hunting monsters with you guys?" Matt looked from Clare to Alex as he asked his question.

"Well I said it a second ago. You guys are untrained." Clare spoke up, "If you guys want to join up, you'd need to go through the training process."

"And how difficult is your training?" Matt asked.

"It could make Navy Seals cry." The both of them said in unison.

"Well do you guys use guns?" I asked, although feeling like it was a stupid question to ask.

"Oh do we use guns." Alex said with a smile on his lips, growing wider by the second. "We have a wide selection to chose from, but you can bring your own if you want as well."

"We also have specifics for ammo." Clare spoke up once again. "Its three-oh-eight and two-two-three for rifles. Forty and forty five for pistols. Then its standard twelve gage for shotguns."

"Damn!" Matt and I said at the same time.

"Alright so just a few more things to clear up here." Alex said as he pulled a few things from his back pocket. "First of all, if you're interested in purchasing anything else, show these cards to Brian at Intimidator Armory. He'll sell you things that normally would be illegal to sell in New York State. Secondly, these belong to the two of you."

Alex handed us two business cards, and a white envelope. The two of us looked at one another, as we opened the envelopes. My stomach flipped several times when I saw it was a check made out to me worth two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

"Two hundred fifty thousand dollars" The two of us said at the same time in matching tones of incredulity.

"Belle was right." Clare said smiling. "That doesn't get old."

"So are you guys in or what?" Alex asked, and Matt and I shared another look.

"We're in." I said.

"Definately in." Matt replied.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh sure we said that we were in, but there were a few things that bothered me. First of all, it was the spring semester. I don't know about Matt, but I wasn't going to drop my education mid-semester to try out to become a monster bounty hunter. Don't get me wrong though, I did say I was in the same as Matt, but I wanted to finish off the semester. Fortunately, when I ended up calling the number on the card that was given to me by Alex and Clare when the two gave us those large checks, the man on the other line who called himself Earl Harbinger, said that there was a newbie course underway, and that there wouldn't be another one for four months.

One issue down, but something still bothered me. That was the ammo standards for MHI. Now while I fit the bill with the majority of my weapons, that being my AR-15, my 1887's, and even the Peacemakers that once belonged to my grandpa. I wanted something that could pack more punch than what I currently had. Well I … That is to say we solved that problem a few days after the incident at the Baldwinsville shooting range. The PUFF checks had cleared much to our surprise. In case you're wondering what PUFF is, Clare said that it stood for the Perifferal Unearthly Forces Fund. It was the system used to pay hunters that Teddy Roosevelt set up in 1902. Now from what was explained, there were specifics on how PUFF bounties worked, and that depended on the monster. That being: species, age, and number of victims claimed (That last one made me shudder).

Okay I got a little off topic. Anyways, it was a few days after those two hundred fifty thousand bounties cleared. Now the two of us frequented Intimidator Armory pretty often. Okay that's a bit of an understatement. Matt and I spent more time there, than we did at work and school. The small bell at the top of the doorway rang as the two of us stepped in, and the man behind the counter waved as we stepped inside.

"Hey guys." The shop owner Brian said as we approached the counter. "Just looking today, or you gonna buy something?"

"Oh we're definately buying today." I replied.

"Well that's a surprise." Brian said in a tone of mock surprise. "So what can I get you guys?"

"You recognise this?" Matt asked as the two of us held up the business cards. And the smile that crossed his face, was like a small kid on Christmas who got the toy he waited all year for from Santa.

"Aw fuck yeah! So what can I get you guys? Take your pick." Brian said, with that smile never leaving his face. "Hey Jimmi, you want to get your hands on a better shotgun?"

"Well I kinda like my eighteen-eighty-sevens." I began, but Brian waved me off.

"Ah those things are pea shooters. You need something with a little more meat on its bones." He disappeared into the back of the shop for a moment, but came back carrying what seemed to be a shortened rifle, but upon further inspection, I realised that it was a- "Seiga twelve. Shortened body, collapsable stock, custom muzzle break, saw-style pistol grip and trigger job. It comes with your standard ten round mag, or a twenty round drum. You can go either semi, or automatic too."

I lost the ability to speak for a few seconds. I was positively drooling over this Russian shotgun. I wanted it. I absolutely had to have this shotgun. "How much?" I asked in a reverent tone.

"It's priced at eleven eighty-two." Brian said.

"Done." I said a little too quickly, which caught Brian off guard.

"Come again?" He asked.

"I'll take it. You did not show me that masterpiece of a shotgun if you didn't think I was going to buy it." I said never taking my eyes off the weapon.

"Alright." Brian said smiling. "Custom Seiga twelve, check. You want anything else?"

"Yeah." I said slowly as I looked around the shop. Thankfully there was nobody else in the shop, with the exception of the three of us. "I could use a rifle, preferably something that isn't single-fire… Is… Is that a Galil?"

Brian looked over his shoulder to where I was pointing. His wide smile grew wider if that was possible as he took the Israeli-made assault rifle off the shelf. "Nice eye. Well as you said this is a Galil. This one's made by ACE custom. It's got a twenty one inch barrel, the same pistol grip and trigger job like the Seiga, it comes with your preferred choice of halo or reflex sighting, and the best part is that it fires in single, burst and full auto."

"I'll take it." I said, and Brian set the assault rifle next to the customised shotgun.

"It's yours. So what else?"

I still had the matter of getting my hands on a handgun that used either .40 Smith and Wesson or .45 ACP. "No nineteen-elevens in stock?"

"Sorry Jimmi, sold my last one a couple weeks ago." Brian replied with a shrug. "But if you wanted to place an order on one, I can notify you the next time one comes in."

"Nah. I'll choose something else. You got Sig's right?"

"Attaboy." Brian said taking a key off the ring on his belt, and unlocking the case. He set the sidearm next to the shotgun and the rifle. "Okay this one's nice. It's a Sig two twenty, just got it in. It's an S-four series. Extended threaded barrel for a mounted suppressor, elevated night sights, retention lanyard, fifteen round magazine, and you see the rails underneath the barrel?"

"It's for a laser sight." I said knowingly.

"Bingo. That comes with this sidearm. Oh yeah, and just this once because I know what you're gonna be up against." Brian pulled another Sig, this one smaller than its big brother, and fired ten rounds instead of the usual fifteen. The price was half off if it was purchased along with its full-sized counterpart.

"Hell yeah. I'll take everything." I said, feeling weak in the knees. If I didn't have that PUFF check, there would be no way in hell I would be able to afford these guns. "But can I ask, why the deal with the baby Sig?"

"Well In reality, the smaller Sig's we got aren't really selling. My buddy Alex said that a couple of guys would be stopping in with those cards, and I kinda want to make space in this case." Brian explained.

"Oh so it's basically that saying that involves the words 'gift horse' and 'mouth' right?" I asked.

"Pretty much."

Well I wasn't going to complain. Four new highly kickass guns with some awesome attatchments. It was Christmas for me.

"Matt." I said nudging my friend who was nose deep in the latest issue of Guns 'N Ammo. "Eyes up man, it's your turn."

"Sorry." He said clearing his throat, and showing me what he was looking at in the gun catalogue. "That EBR was calling to me."

"It's a gun magazine dude, not Playboy." Brian said, as he took the magazine out of Matt's hands. "Oh yeah, I remember this gun. It was in my shop a few years ago."

Matt and I stared at Brian in disbelief. "That beauty was in here?" Matt asked with his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"Past tense guys. I sold it years ago." Brian said apologetically.

"Well what can you do with this?" Matt asked placing the gun case that had his FAL rifle on the display case.

"I remember this one." Brian said smiling, as he ran a hand along the shortened rifles stock. "You could barely afford it. Hell I'm surprised you could even afford that Tac fortyfive that just came back."

"In all honesty, so am I." Matt replied.

"So what do you want for this little devil?" Brian asked.

Matt thought for a minute, then spoke up. "Trijicon one-to-four power Accupoint scope, and a suppressor if you have any lying around."

"Done and done." Brian said, as he headed into the back of the store to retrieve the attatchments Matt had requested for his FAL. While Brian was busy looking for what Matt wanted to put onto his FAL, Matt was scoping out the shotgun rack. He seemed to be torn between a Spas 12 and a Benelli tactical TR.

"Well they're both good pump guns." I said staring at the shotguns. "Why not get both? It never hurts to have a backup."

"Nah." Matt said shaking his head. "I think I'm gonna go with the Benelli."

"Nice choice." Brian said taking the pump gun off the rack. "Eighteen inch barrel, can hold eight rounds. Seven three inch shells in the magazine, and one in the chamber. You can fire either on semi auto or pump. Barrel's ported, and the top here is railed to mount optics if you're into putting a scope on a shottie."

"Who the fuck would put a scope on a shottie?" Matt and I asked in unison.

"Guys after my own heart." Brian said laying the Benelli on the counter. "What else?"

"A phased plasma rifle in the forty-watt range?"

"Oh yeah right." Brian scoffed, and the three of us laughed at Matt's little joke.

"What about that other Tac forty-five?"

"Now you're talking." Brian said taking the ten round tactical sidearm out of the pistol display case. "So anything else?"

"Yeah." I spoke up. "We're gonna need ammo."

"I figured." Brian replied. "Preferences on anything special?"

"Quadrangle buckshot?" Matt looked at me like I was insane.

An evil smirk crossed Brian's face. "I can do that."

Well we had our weapons, but there was another issue that was still bothering me, and that was my physical condition. I was by no means a fat slob, but I was five feet ten inches, two hundred ten pounds of out of shape Irish white boy. There was no way in hell that I was going to wherever MHI was in the physical condition I was in. So every day after classes had ended, and I didn't have to work, I hit the local gym and hit the weights and treadmills until it felt like my limbs were on fire. Sure I ran myself ragged, but I wanted to be prepared for whatever MHI could throw at me. When classes ended in late May, I signed up for advanced martial arts classes, and an MMA course. Jui Jitsu, Panther, Tiger. I was deadly with a katana, and any other weapon that had an edge. At one point, someone from my MMA class asked what I was afraid of due to taking all these martial arts courses. I looked him dead in the eye and told him, I wasn't scared of a damn thing now.

By the end of the four months Matt and I had to wait for the next newbie course, I was a certified badass. The Sensei of the martial arts course I had taken, had given me a katana. Tempered steel, razor edge, perfectly balanced handguard, and the scabbard was highly polished oak wood, with a tiger painted in gold on both sides of the polished wood. He said he was sorry to see me go, and that I was always welcome in his dojo. I learned later that the katana was a go-to weapon for a lot of Hunters, and the blade really got the job done. Now quick note: not all katana's are the same. It has a lot to do with the skill of the forger, and how many layers were stacked while during the forging of the blade. The more layers folded during the forging, the better the quality of the katana. Sensei had told me that this particular blade was a three-shoul. In that it could slice cleanly through three people in one swing. Matt was positively drooling over my katana. While he didn't take the martial arts course that got me my new katana, he was right beside me with the MMA course and running himself ragged at the gym. The two of us knew we were as ready as we could be for MHI's training.

It was a two day drive from New York to Alabama. The two of us had to drive careful as well. We didn't want to end up being pulled over by the cops. You could imagine the awkward conversation of trying to explain to a highway patrolman what an armory of weapons were doing in the trunks of two late model vehicles. It was late in the afternoon when the two of us reached the small town of Cazador … Okay let's be honest here. It's an insult to call Cazador a town. This place was basically an old fishing village, that if you can believe this, allowed people to take a tour of the catfish factory. Following the directions that Earl Harbinger had given us, we turned off the main road, and turned onto a road that seemed more like a less traveled hiking path. The deeper we went, the denser the trees got. We were two seconds away from saying screw it, and heading back, when a large razor wire fence came into view. At the top of the fence was a faded green horned smiley face. Must have been their emblem or something. There was also a small guard shack, occupied by a highly attractive blonde with a body that left very little to the imagination. She had on an identical pair of silver aviator sunglasses that reminded me of the pair Clare Morrison had when she and Alex gave us our PUFF bounties.

"Can I help you two?" She asked, turning down a stereo I hadn't noticed was there before, and my stomach jolted when I noted she was also armed with an ACE made Galil rifle like mine.

"Yeah." I said slowly, not taking my eyes off of this woman's rifle. "Is um … Is this Monster Hunter International?"

The blonde's face split into a friendly smile. "You two here for the newest newbie course?"

"Yeah. We are, but this is Monster Hunter International right?" I asked still looking at her rifle.

"You came to the right place, but would you quit staring at my chest? It's rude to stare." The attractive woman said, and I smiled for the first time since I started talking to her.

"Sorry ma'am, but I wasn't staring at your chest. I was looking at your rifle. It's a Galil by ACE custom. I have one just like it in my trunk."

"Oh you don't have to call me 'ma'am'. My name is Holly." Holly extended her hand. "Holly Newcastle."

I shook her hand smiling. "James Woods. But to my close friends, it's Jimmi Hendrix."

Holly Newcastle tilted her head. "Why Jimmi Hendrix?"

"It was a stupid high school nickname that stuck." I explained. "It also doesn't help that I have on a Jimmi Hendrix shirt, and…" I turned up my radio, and _Purple Haze_ blared out of my speakers, from where it was plugged into the tape jack that was fed into my iPod.

Holly laughed. "Oh that's great! Go on in, and park in front of the main building. You can't miss it, and welcome to MHI Jimmi."

The main building of MHI was several stories high. It was made of all brick, with slits for windows, that gave off this really big foreboding feeling. I felt a chill go up my spine, as I exited my car, and looked up at the large building. "No way I'm going in there unarmed." I heard Matt say, and saw him holster one of his Tac-45's. I followed his example, and holstered my full-sized laser sighted Sig Saur P220 onto my belt.

The interior of the building was completely different from what I was expecting to find. What I was prepared for were some seriously armed guards with Ma Duce's prepared for war. What was there, was a high ceilinged reception area, with a highly polished marble floor, and a large oak wood desk. There was a woman sitting behind it who looked like Betty White. Were we in the right place? Or was Holly Newcaslte messing with us?

"Can I help you boys?" The Betty White look alike asked us. We must have looked extremely lost to her.

"Uh yes ma'am. We're here for the um … For the newbie course." Matt spoke up, clearly shocked at what was waiting for us on the other side of those large doors where had just come through.

"I'm no ma'am son." The woman said. "My name's Dorcas. And the newbie's are in the cafeteria behind the doors behind me." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, and we followed her directions.

"Just one more thing boys." We stopped at the same time, and looked over to Dorcas. "Never got your names."

"Oh I'm Matt Reese, and this is my buddy Jimmi," I elbowed Matt in the side. "James Woods."

Dorcas seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, before she spoke again. "Ohhh you're them young boys from New York, that went up against five werewolves. You killed 'em all without getting a single scratch. Good work boys." She held her hand out, and we shook it marveling the strength the elder woman had in her hands. But that must have been due to the large Ruger revolver she had in her lap.

Before we entered the cafeteria, a large wall of silver plaques caught our attention. Undoubtedly a memorial wall, with a surprising number of dates of death being in 1995. That must have been a serious black year for this company. A few other names had death dates going back several years. Including my grandfather's to my surprise. Above the wall there was writing in latin.

" _Sic transit gloria mundi."_ Matt read out. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means; 'The glory of the world is fleeting'." I replied, and added in response to Matt's confused look. "We had to read Tolstoy in Latin last year. That book sucked."

Matt nodded, and we proceeded through the large double doors that led into the incredibly large cafeteria. I let out a low whistle as I saw how many other people were there. There must have been over a hundred of them, all from different ethnic backgrounds. A lot of them were grouped together lost in conversation with one another. I didn't feel like barging in on anyone's conversation at an inopportune time, so we sat down next to someone else who was sitting by himself towards the front.

"What brings you guys here?" He asked.

"We killed five werewolves." I replied holding out my hand. "James Woods. Although a lot of people call me Jimmi Hendrix."

"Richard Rollins." Richard replied shaking my hand. "Although a lot of people call me Rocky."

"From Philadelphia right? I mean come on. Rocky, Philly." I rolled my eyes. Matt could be really stupid sometimes.

"Yeah I'm from Philly. That's how I got the name Rocky. But five werewolves?"

"Yeah it was pretty intense." Matt said launching into the story. "We're packing up from being out at a shooting range, and we're almost to our cars when we hear some real loud growling. Now the owners of the range don't have any dogs that we knew of, so we turn around, and there's nothing there. No dog, owned or stray. But when we look up, that's when we see the first werewolf. It launches itself at us, but Jimmi here didn't run. Next thing I know, Jimmi has a shotgun in his hands which at the time were a pair of real nice eighteen eighty-sevens. He blasts the wolf's left arm off at the shoulder. It charges again, and catches a hail of buckshot in the gut. Jimmi tosses me his shotgun, and heads to his car. Now his grandpa helped this place out a few years before he passed away. In his will, Jimmi was left three things: his house in Manhattan, a really nice nineteen ninety Mustang, and a pair of Colt Peacemakers. Those revolvers were, lucky for us, loaded with silver bullets, and Jimmi takes out the first wolf. Unfortunately its friends got there not two seconds later and they were more than a little … What's the term? Oh yeah, pissed off. So Jimmi hands me one of his revolvers not a second before the four other wolves launch at us. We take out two, but the other two start circling us. One of them tries the same tactic of charging at us, but Jimmi ducks and takes me with him. In a stroke of brilliance, he gets his gun up, and pops the son of a bitch through the jaw, and up through its brain. Four down and one to go. Only problem is that the damn thing is right behind my car."

"Let me finish this one Matt." I said before my friend could continue, and Rockie's focus switched from Matt to myself. "Anyways, Matt due to genius quick thinking, fires off two rounds underneath his late model Crown Vic. The bullets catch the wolf in the knees and he drops. Then Matt gets the idea to be flashy, and finish off the wolf like the brothers from the Boondock Saints."

"Wait, wait, wait." Rocky interjected. "The Boondock Saints? You mean the prayer those Irish brothers say before they pop someone in the back of the head execution style?"

"That's exactly what we did." I replied.

"Holy mother of badass." I knew we had impressed Rocky.

"But what about you Rocky?" Matt asked. "What did you kill to get here?"

"Well." Rocky started. "My story isn't as kickass as yours, I didn't go up against five angry werewolves or anything. Nah, I got attacked by a vampire."

"Oooooooooh." The two of us grimaced.

"Yeah. It wasn't fun. I was walking home from my MMA class, when something tackled me. I got lucky and managed to get out on top, and when I get a good look at the guy, he's got blood all over his mouth and the front of his shirt. Part that creeped me out the most was when he smiled at me. It was this hungry predatorial 'Imma fuck you up something nasty' smile. Even worse than that, was when he gave me that smile, I could see those long fangs."

"What did you do?" Matt asked leaning forward like I was.

"Well there was a back and forth scuffle, during which, it was all I could do to keep him away from my neck. Somehow I got my knee up, and caught the bastard in the balls. As he's trying to recover, I reach into my pocket where I have a pair of brass knuckles. I get the son of a bitch by the throat, and I just start punching away at his head, until there's nothing left and I'm just sitting there on the sidewalk making jelly."

"Damn. It sounds like that scene from Sin City." Matt said nodding his approval.

Rocky never got the chance to reply, as several people walked onto a stage we hadn't noticed before at the front of the cafeteria. I recognised Holly Newcastle, although it wasn't hard to distinguish her from the others. Next to her was a tall black man with his hair styled into dreadlocks. Standing next to that guy, was a bear of a man who could possibly give Agent Franks a run for his money. In the center of the stage was a man with sandy blonde hair with a cigarette in his mouth, and a dark brown leather bomber jacket that had that same horned green smiley face on the left sleeve. To his left, was another attractive woman with long black hair and horn rimmed glasses. -Rocky identified the huge bear of a man, and this woman as Owen and Julie Pitt. The two people who had recruited him.- Next to Julie, was another man who was just as tall as Owen who had wire rimmed glasses, and a red Duck Dynasty style beard. And finally next to him stood another woman. A redhead with bright green eyes that seemed slightly fixated on the man at center stage.

All conversation in the cafeteria ceased at once when the sandy blonde man in center stage started speaking. "Alright everyone listen up. My name is Earl Harbinger and I'm the director of operations here at MHI. Now weather it was by me, or another hunter, the reason you're here is simple. You survived an encounter with a monster. Now I don't mean you were able to run and get away safely. No, I mean you fought back and killed the son of a bitch, and that's why you're here. You didn't listen to the part of your brain when it said to run, but chose to listen to that other part of your brain that told you to fight."

There was another murmur of conversation, but that stopped again almost at once when Earl started speaking again. "Now I'm not gonna sugar coat it people. This is a dangerous business. You all saw the plaques outside the cafeteria. Each one of those represents a fallen hunter. Add to the fact that the mortality rate for first year hunters is so low. Hell I wouldn't be surprised or blame anyone if they walked out of here right now."

Not one person got up and left, and a moment later, Earl started speaking again. "No? Alright good. Listen up, the training here is brutal as all hell. Some of you will fail, a few might be kicked out, but a lot of you will quit. And before anyone says anything, trust me it'll happen. More of you will quit more than others will wash out or be kicked out. Now some of you might have training in law enforcement, intelligence, or military, but let me tell you this. Everyone here and now gets the same training regardless of who you are, or what experience you have or don't have. I said it a second ago too, our training is brutal, but if you make it through, you'll be a real hunter working alongside other more experienced hunters on a team. If nobody wants to leave, training starts bright and early tomorrow."

Bright and early my ass! We were up at three in the goddamn morning! However those four months I spent getting into shape really did pay off, because the cross country runs, and obstacle courses were mind numbingly brutal. The lecture classes were brutal as well, but they were small mercy. Matt and I tested out of a few of them. Most notably weapon usage and safety. We were gun nuts after all. But there were some real nasty parts of that training too. Learning how to steak, decapitate, and gut monsters was one. Oh and the goddamn Gut Crawl. A one hundred yard pipe filled with intestines, and all sorts of nasty shit us recruits had to crawl through. I am so glad Owen Pitt told me not to eat breakfast that morning, because the smell from that alone was enough to make me vomit. I had never wanted to take a shower that bad before in my life.

Then finally it was over. Four months to the day Matt, Rocky, and myself started, we were standing in the cafeteria, along with sixty or seventy other people who hadn't washed out, got kicked out, or quit. All of us were decked out in MHI's armor which was a combination of Kevlar, Nomex, plastic and ceramic plates. All three of us had opted to have our armor colored in straight black, like almost everyone else. And like it was four months ago, Earl Harbinger stood at the center of the cafeteria's stage, flanked by his team.

"Congratulations. You all made it." He then began to read off names off a piece of paper, that detailed who was being sent where.

"Nice job." Rocky said. "Glad to see you two made it."

"Yeah I thought I was going to go insane after that second Gut Crawl." I replied and we all shuddered. None of us wanted to go through that again as long as we lived.

We heard Earl call our names out, and our attention went back to the man speaking at center stage. "Martin's team Syracuse: Reese, Rollins Woods."

"Goin' home." Matt said.

"And on the same team too." I replied, and the three of us shared a knuckle bump reminiscent of the one shared between Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.


	4. Chapter 4

It was another two day drive to get home, and I gotta say coming home from a long journey is worse than making the initial trip in that you think it takes longer than it really is. But the bottom line is, that when we finally arrived in Syracuse we were starving. I reached for the walky-talky that was resting in one of the two cup holders in the center console, when it cracked to life.

" _Can we stop off somewhere and get something to eat?_ " Rocky asked over the line. " _I'm starving_."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, you feeling up to Applebee's?"

There was an Applebee's located close to where the Syracuse compound was. It was set right in between three buildings. The local high school -I didn't attend this one, as Fulton was about an hour drive away- A clothing store that looked like it was a few weeks away from going out of business, and a Lowes hardware that was connected to the local Walmart. Okay so it was four buildings, but those last two were connected. It's interior was a little darker than most other resturaunts, but the interior was warm and inviting. The receptionist asked if it was just the three of us, when someone called out.

"Those three are with us!"

The receptionist smiled and took the three of us to a small cluster of tables closer to the bar. There was a long padded bench on one side of the tables, and a few chairs on the other side. Fifteen people were sitting at the tables, who all looked at us smiling as the receptionist seated us.

"You guys look good." Alex said.

"Those was the most brutal four months of my life." Matt said as he looked through the menu.

"Eh it'll get easier from here on out." Another guy in a backwards Yankee cap said. "I'm Connor, one of the team heavy gunners. Kai," Connor pointed to a highly attractive Japanese woman, "Is the other."

At the far end of the bench, another man leaned over. His hair was brown, and combed back, there was a pair of dark shades on top of his head, he had a dark Under Armor shirt covering his torso, and I could see the bottom of what looked like a Celtic Cross tattoo poking out from under his shirt on his left forearm. "I'm Pat Martin. I'm the team leader up here. You already met Alex and Clare," -the married couple waved- "You know Connor and Kai, now let me get you up to speed on the rest of the team."

Isabelle, who was the dark-skinned dreadlocked woman, who had an american flag bandanna tied around her forehead was the team's medic. The large unhappy man, who greeted us in Russian was one of the team's marksmen. His was Dimitri. Alex's two brothers were also on the team. His older brother John was a mix of marksmen and support gunner. Thom was the second true marksman, who was also the owner of the EBR that matt was drooling over when we were in Intimidator's. Alex's father Lucas, was a former soldier like John. Terry Creed was once an FBI Agent, who had a bit of a beef with Alex a while back, -the short story was that, the vampire that attacked Alex before he became a hunter was Creed's little brother- Then there were the Fulani brothers. Ardeth was the younger and piloted the teams airborne vehicles. Most notable was a star spangled MH-6 Little Bird, that was armed for war. Farid was the older of the two. Finally we had James. He was the team CQB and demolitions specialist. If it went boom he was happy.

The eighteen of us must have spent hours at those tables, eating and in case of the three of us newbies, listening to the team talk about previous jobs when more of the patrons had gone. It sounded like the team had just gotten back from another job dealing with some sort of yeti in Greenland, and I was amazed at that little bit of information. This company must get a lot of frequent flier miles, if they were doing jobs in Greenland.

"Alex." Pat called from where he sat at the far end of the table.

"What's up Pat?" The other hunter asked.

"We got us a game, and I want you to take the new guys and take lead on this one." I tilted my head. When Pat said 'game' did that mean we had a monster to deal with, but judging from how the rest of the team reacted, it couldn't have been anyone else.

"Alright then." Alex said getting up, and placing a hundred dollar bill on the table. "Text me the details Pat. Clare, James, you guys are with me. Newbies you too and," he paused to assess the rest of the team. "Dimitri, Kai, Belle, and Farid."

The ten of us got up, paid for our food, and headed for our cars. MHI's compound was located where an old rock crusher once was. It was also a munitions factory in World War I, but it was shut down, when an explosion killed hundreds of its workers. It was haunted ever since, at least it was until MHI had come along and renovated the place. The main building of the compound was built into the old rock crusher, but that's all we got to really see as we pulled into the garage, that connected to the armory.

"Get your armor and weapons together newbies, you're in for a trial by fire." Alex said as he headed towards the armory. "We're taking care of a vampire."

"Where at Alex?" James asked, as he took a large Smith and Wesson 500 from his Jeep Wrangler.

"We're going to Fulton." I felt my blood chill, at Alex's words. "It's where we first fought those cultists all those years ago.

"Great." James said rolling his eyes. "We gotta go back there. You know I should have placed C-four around the whole damn thing and collapsed it when I had the chance."

"Well James, you might get your chance this time around." Clare said following her husband into the armory.

It was an hour later, when we arrived back in my shithole of a home town. The sun had set by then, and the only light in the sky came from the stars. the building Alex had mentioned was right in the heart of Fulton, right on the bank of the river that divided the city in half. It used to be an old office building, and I remember hearing gunfire coming from the vicinity of this building years ago, but I thought some gang members had gotten into it with the cops. I realize now that must have been the cover story made up by the MCB. Now that old building was covered in crime scene police tape, and a lot of its windows had boarded up.

"Alright, we're up against a vampire, so that means wights on top of our mark." Alex said getting out of the drivers seat of one of the large black SUV's we had rolled out in. In all honesty, I didn't know how I felt about going up against a vampire as my first mission, especially when I was back home… Okay If I'm being honest with myself, I hated having to call this place home. Yeah, despite the fact that mom lived here, I never really thought of this place as home, and I'd be real glad once we got this job done, got payed, and got back to the compound.

"How do we go about this Alex?" Kai Leng asked, as she racked the charging handle on her M249 Para variant SAW LMG.

"We're gonna insert the same way the original eight of us did years ago. There's a door at the base of the river. We go in there, and work our way up. Everything in there is hostile, so nobody hesitate to pull the trigger." It felt like Alex was speaking to the three of us rookies, rather than the more tried and tested members of the team.

"Once we're in, we split up. Clear the place floor by floor." Alex racked back the charging handle of a customized G3 rifle he called Gungnir. "Everyone keep their heads on a swivel in there."

We moved silently along the riverbank, everyone plugging their noses at the stench of the soil under our boots. It would be fun getting the nasty ass dirt out of my boots when we got back. I felt a jolt of both excitement shoot through me when we finally reached the door Alex had mentioned. My grip on my Seiga tightened, as one by one, members of our team slowly disappeared into the old office.

"Nervous?" Rocky asked as he turned his head to look at me over his shoulder.

I nodded. "Yeah. What about you?"

"I'm scared shitless. Never thought I would be taking on a vampire as my first official job." Rocky wasn't kidding about being scared shitless. Even though there was no moon out, and the streetlights weren't working due to the neighborhood punks vandalizing them, I could clearly see how pale his face was.

"Don't worry. I was nervous on my first hunt as well." Farid said from behind me, checking the laser sight on his H&K MP7. "Portland Maine. We fought a nest of harpies that had taken up roost there. My brother Ardeth and I were on vacation in South America when we were attacked by another nest."

"So how did you get over your nerves?" I asked.

I thought I saw Farid smile, but as there was no light from the moon, or the streetlights I couldn't tell. "Ardeth and I stole a Little Bird helicopter, while Kai Leng destroyed the nest with that machine gun she favors so much."

"Well here goes nothing." Rocky said taking a deep breath, and disappearing into the doorway. A moment later, I followed him noting that the door hung on one hinge, and there was a large indentation where someone's boot had made contact with it. Whoever kicked this door in the first time was a freaking tank.

Alex was at the foot of the stairs at the end of a long hallway. Once all of us had filed inside, Alex spoke in a low voice. "Movement on the next floor. Wights. Everyone be careful and don't let them touch you. Dimitri are you in position?"

" _Da_." Dimitri's voice spoke over our comm channel. " _There are a lot of cold spots over the thermal scope, and the target is on the top floor_."

"Why are they always on the top floor?" James asked, sliding a shell into his Benelli and cycling the action to chamber the round?

"Alright cut the chatter, and split up. Clare, and the three newbies are with me. We're going to the left. Belle take James, Kai, and and Farid and head right." Everyone nodded at Alex's orders, and the more experienced hunters of the team went up the stairs to the right, while the rest of us took the stairs to the left.

My stomach dropped when I saw the next room. Wights were packed in the room. Wall to wall, and window to window. I felt my blood turn to ice when one of the wights alerted all the others to our presence with a loud ear-piercing cry. I didn't even remember flicking the firing mode on my Seiga to fire on auto, but I had raised my Russian made shotgun, and ten rounds filled with the quadrangle buckshot I bought from Intimidator shredded almost a third of the wights in the room. My ten rounds clicked empty, and I felt someone pull me out of the way.

"Nice one rookie." Alex said, before firing Gungnir crouching low, while Clare stood behind him firing a PDW variant of a Scar assault rifle. I felt a smile cross my face, as I dug out a magazine filled with ten three-inch shells. I loaded it into the mag port, and racked back the charging handle as Alex and Clare both clicked empty.

Matt and Rocky stepped in, once Alex and Clare ran empty. Matt with his beloved shortened FAL, while Rocky had a Mossberg pump gun in his hands. The eight blasts of the shotgun drowned out the chirps made by Matt's suppressed rifle. "It's clear." Matt said, as he moved into the room, that looked like some sort of explosion had happened in here. There was also an assortment of odd objects, mostly red cloth with what looked like … A satanic cross?

"Told you didn't I?" Alex said, as he crouched down next to me. I jumped at the sound of his beretta firing a single shot. My eyes rested on his Beretta, -a custom job made to look like Barry Burton's from the Resident Evil games- and soon found why he had let a shot off. One of the wights had been bisected by one of our guns, but it hadn't been killed and was slowly clawing its way towards me. "We engaged satanic cultists here a few years ago."

"Thanks for the save I owe you one." Alex smiled and shook his head at my remark as he holstered his sidearm. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot rookie." Alex said, as we made our way to the door at the far end of the room.

"Why does it look like an explosion went off in this room? Floor is torn up, a lot of the windows are boarded up." Both Alex, and Clare exchanged a small knowing smile.

"When we were first in here, James fired a forty millimeter shell from a semi-automatic grenade launcher." Clare said reloading her Scar PDW. "Tore the floor up, blew the windows out, and killed everything unfortunate to get caught in the blast."

Everyone jumped when a large explosion sent a shockwave through the building, making Alex roll his eyes. "He did it again didn't he Belle?"

" _Yeah he did_." Isabelle said over the line. " _We should hurry up for the cops come. We all know how complicated it is trying to explain all our guns to the local law enforcement_."

Then something else grabbed my attention. Another rifle report, but it seemed far away. "Was that Dimitri?" I asked, hearing shrieks from the floor above.

"Yeah that was him." Alex said, motioning for us to follow. "Come on Belle's right. Let's finish this and go home before the cops get here."

The five of us raced up the stairs, and were greeted to one hell of a sight at the second floor landing. There were wights in this room as well, but they were dropping like flies from another shooter who was making holes in the plywood that had taken the place of where the glass windows had once been. That shooter had to undoubtedly be Dimitri.

"Gotta hand it to Dimitri, he's good." Matt said, as a trio of rounds made several new holes in the plywood, and took down three more wights.

"Well don't just stand there rookies." Clare said. "Give him a hand."

The three of us didn't need telling twice. The room was cleared by two shotguns. One pump, the other on full auto. And a thirty round suppressed and shortened FAL in a matter of seconds. The three of us systematically reloaded our weapons, as we slowly made our way through the room.

"Hey Clare, get a load of this." We all turned towards Alex, and he motioned to the piece of plywood that Dimitri was shooting through. I thought I heard Clare say the words 'show off' but her words got drowned out by Matt's whistle of appreciation. Dimitri had made that horned smiley face I saw on both the chainlink razor wired fence, and the side of Earl Harbinger's bomber jacket when I first arrived at MHI. Alex's phone clicked as he took a picture with his phone. "This is going on instagram."

The second floor was cleared, which left only the top floor and our mark. We had the vampire in a pincer, and there was no way it was going to get away unless it blasted a hole in one of the walls. The top floor was the only one that still had working lights, and that vampire who turned out to be a male, who had blonde locks and a very bored expression on his face, was sitting in what had to unmistakably be a golden throne.

"You infiltrate my home." He sighed. "You kill my minions, and now you come to kill me." He got to his feet and stepped away from that throne. Nine hunters snapped their weapons up. Some of us had rifles, others like myself had the vampire's head in the sights of our shotguns.

"Keep your guns on him." Alex said, and my eyes widened when he set his weapons against a wall.

"Boss what the hell are you doing?" Rocky asked, his eyes moving from the vampire, to Alex, and then back to the vampire.

"Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty rookie. And don't call me 'boss'." Alex dropped into a fighting stance, and gave a 'come and get me' gesture with his right hand. The vampire snarled, and became a blur of motion to me as he punched and kicked, lashing out at Alex. To my surprise, as well as Matt's and Rockie's, Alex ducked and blocked the strikes moving even faster than the attacking vampire. The vampire doubled over, its eyes widened in shock when Alex's left fist dug into the vampire's abdomen. Our team leader followed up by digging his right boot, ball first into the vampire's face, again moving way too fast to the normal human eye. The vampire flew back into his throne, knocking it over and going ass over teakettle when the throne was knocked over.

"How dare you…" The vampire snarled at Alex, and the two circled one another like a pair of wolves. With another snarl, the Vampire started swinging at Alex again, but the hunter was much faster than his quarry. Alex ducked under each strike effortlessly, and retaliated by bringing his right palm up under the vampire's chin. The strike was so powerful, it lifted the vampire off his feet and into the air. Roaring as he struck, Alex plunged his right fist not into, but through the vampire's abdomen. He dropped to his knees coughing up blood, that didn't pour out of the wound he suffered quite literally at Alex his hands.

"Rookies, get over here and finish him." Alex said motioning to us with his left arm, while trying to shake off blood from his right hand. The three of us looked at each other in shock. Did he really want the three of us to take this vampire out? "Rookies. He won't have that hole in his gut forever."

I flicked the safety on my Seiga on, and grabbed one of the dual Peacemaker's. The other I tossed to Matt, as we stood behind the vampire. Matt and I aiming the two revolvers, and Rocky aiming the barrel of his Mossberg at the vampire's head.

" _And shepards we shall be._

 _For thee, my Lord for thee._

 _Power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command._

 _So we shall flow a river forth to thee._

 _And teeming with souls shall it ever be._

 _In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spritus Sancti."_

Two bullet holes, blasted out the vampire's eyes when Matt and I fired my Peacemaker revolvers, while Rockie's Mossberg disintegrated his head. Matt tossed back my Peacemaker, as the rest of our team applauded.

"Nice one rookies." James said, smiling broadly with his phone in his hands. "Pat's gonna love this."

"Let's notify Locke, get the Puff bounty on this son of a bitch and go home." Alex said, right before a chorus of howls shattered the quiet that had followed Alex's words. First wights and vampire's, and now werewolves. Somehow I got the feeling that this was gonna be a really long night.

" _Alex._ " Dimitri's voice said over our comms. " _Multiple contacts on thermal. I make out at least two dozen closing on your position fast_."

Alex cursed under his breath, as he fastened his weapons onto their proper places on his armor. "Alright, listen up. We're heading back to the SUV's, use the riverbank so our scents are diluted just in case they are onto us. Fire only if you have a clear shot."

There was a satisfying sound of charging handles racking back, and actions being cycled, as ten hunters headed for the kicked in door and the horrid smelling riverbank. The howls grew louder as the wolves closed in on us, and I felt my stomach drop when several large shapes vaulted over the guardrail a dozen feet above us separating the road from the riverbank, across the now dried up river, and landing on the bank opposite us. Several of us, myself, Matt, and Rocky included turned and opened up on the large dark shapes that were undoubtedly the werewolves. I heard the unmistakable sound of several pained yelps right before the wolves dropped. I heard the sound of Dimitri's rifle discharge, and with another pained yelp, another wolf dropped down right in front of me with a hole in its head, right between the eyes, and its lower jaw missing.

I was on the verge of making some sort of comment about Dimitri's skill with a rifle, when my breath hitched in my throat. Another wolf dropped down right in front of me, and there were no bullet holes in this one. It's fangs were bared, and I saw in slow motion its clawed right hand cock back to take a swipe at me. That wolf never got a chance to swing. I pressed the barrel of my Seiga against its chest, and blasted a foot-wide hole in the wolf's chest, and out through its back. I felt its blood splatter against my face, as it was blown back into the center of the dried up river.

"Nice shot!" Matt yelled before firing his suppressed FAL, and put ten rounds into another wolf who had landed on the opposite riverbank. It was overkill in my opinion, as Matt had hit the wolf in the head with his first shot, and was just giving these wolves further cause to want us for dinner.

"Everyone cross the river now!" Clare yelled, as she dropped another wolf with a trio of rounds burst-fired from her Scar PDW. Nobody needed telling twice. We all made a break for the opposite bank, but Rocky swore something nasty, and made some sort of horrible gagging sound. My blood turned to ice for a second time that night, when I turned around, and saw that a wolf had Rocky by the throat. He had been lifted several feet into the air, the wolf was choking the life out of him, and I didn't have a clear shot. Not with my Seiga anyway.

I let the Russian shotgun drop, allowing the sling to catch it. I drew my full-sized Sig from where it was holstered on my right hip, and the laser sighting painted a target directly on the center of the wolf's head. I fired off three shots, and the wolf dropped Rocky into the mud. I raced over and hauled him to his feet, as he gasped for air. Matt grabbed his right arm as I placed Rockie's right arm around my shoulders, and we began hauling him back to the opposite riverbank.

Two more wolves landed in front of the three of us, snarling and baring their fangs as they prepared to rush us. I lit up the wolf on the right, with my Sig's laser sight, and put six more PowR Ball hollow point rounds that were specially made for MHI into the things chest. The wolf twitched and jerked six times, coming to a rest on the slime covered brick, and leaving a trail of blood as it slid down into the mud of the riverbank. The second wolf crouched low, and looked like it was a split second from launching itself from the three of us. It never happened, as Alex tackled the thing into the mud. Our temporary team leader, landed on the werewolf's back, and inserted his fingers into the wolf's mouth. With a tremendous roar, ripped the top of the werewolf's head off.

The three of us stared at Alex in disbelief for what seemed like hours, as he stood up in slow motion, and drew his beretta. Without even looking at the three of us, he pointed his customised sidearm at us, and pulled the trigger. The silver round snapped past our ears, and we heard another yelp of pain. Matt, Rocky, and myself all turned around, and saw another wolf standing there directly behind us with what seemed to be a surprised look on its face, and a .40 sized bullet hole in its head. The wolf stayed upright for a moment longer, before toppling sideways into the mud.

"Dimitri, anymore hostile contacts?" Alex asked our marksman, as he placed his sidearm back into its holster.

"Negative Alex." Our marksman replied. "All wolves are down."

"Good. Call Locke, and have him pick up the bodies. After that, get down here and let's go home."

Isabelle thuroughly examined Rocky once everyone was back at our teams SUV's. He was shaken up, but there was no damage done to his throat, and no bite marks anywhere on his body. "Can we just go home now?" He asked in a slightly hoarse voice.

The ten of us all piled into the SUV's after the MCB showed up and retrieved the bodies of the twenty four werewolves, the seventy plus wights, and a six month old vampire that had claimed twenty three victims. With Matt's math, the PUFF check our team would get, was upwards of somewhere around 2.5 mil. The hour ride back to the compound was shorter than I thought it was, mainly because I was falling in and out of sleep the entire car ride back. When we finally pulled into the garage of the compound, I had barely registered putting my rifle's and Seiga into a weapons locker. I kept my full-sized Sig with me, just in case anything tried to surprise me.

The barracks of MHI's Syracuse compound were on the second floor, and Alex said to just pick a room that wasn't occupied by one of the team. I chose one on the far end of the long hallway on the right hand side. I thought that there was just going to be a basic looking room with a semi-comfortable bed, however the team leader Pat had used some of the team's funding to make each room a replicant of a five-star Presidential suite. I sighed in immense relief, balled my clothes up, tossed them into one corner of the room, and must have spent at least two hours in that shower before I turned in for the night. I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't know how long I was asleep for, however when I woke up Matt and Rocky were standing there smiling down at me. Rocky had a large cup of Dunkin Doughnuts coffee in his hand, that he handed to me when I sat up. "You looked like a hazelnut type of guy to me." He said handing me the large styrofoam cup.

"How long was I out for?" I asked slightly groggy, as I took a large gulp from the coffee cup and sighing in relief when the hazelnut flavored liquid hit my tongue.

"It's one in the afternoon." Matt said tossing a pair of pants on my bed. "You've been asleep for over twelve hours."

"Twelve hours?" I repeated before taking another large gulp from the coffee cup. "We don't have another job do we?"

"Not yet." Rocky said, after I had gotten my jeans on and secured my full-sized Sig Saur to my belt.

"You got any decent clothes in this thing?" Matt asked rifling through the duffel I had packed all my clothes into, finally tossing me a shirt with the crest of the United States Marine Corps printed on the front. I was never a Marine myself, I was a twenty three year old Junior in college. However I had thought about signing up multiple times, but every time I asked my dad if he woul help me out and put in a good word for me. But every time he declined, saying he wanted me to continue my education. But I know the real reason was because, he didn't want to have to end up burying me if anything happened while I was in combat. Hell he wasn't happy about my telling him I'd be postponing my education to become what I told him was a 'civilian contractor.' Technically speaking I wasn't wrong, but I couldn't let him know what I was really doing. Otherwise the MCB might have sent someone like Agent Franks after him. Getting back on topic, that shirt was something I had bought at the State Fair, just to show my support for the US Armed Forces. Don't judge me, I'm not just a gun nut, I'm also a supporter of all men and women serving in all branches of the United States Military, and if I haven't mentioned it before, the son of a Marine Gunnery Sargent. Yeah super patriotic right?

"Come on man." Rocky said after I pulled the shirt over my head, and placed my arms through the shortened sleeves. "Pat wants to properly scope out the newbies."

Our teams leader was located at the rec room on the third floor of the compound. He was sharpening a large Bowie knife. There was a Tarus Judge revolver lying in pieces on the table where he was sitting as well. "So only one day as part of the team, and you go up against wights, vampires, and werewolves."

"We weren't expecting the werewolves boss." Matt said, then added in a hasty tone. "Can I call you boss?"

"Yeah that's fine." He said sheathing his Bowie knife. "Alex said you handled yourselves pretty good last night." Pat then touched the screen of his cell phone, and I could hear the three of us reciting the MacManus brother's prayer.

"We weren't trying to show off with that boss." Rocky said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"No what that was, was being badass." I felt relief wash over me at our team leader's words. "Boondock Saints is one of my all time favorite movies. Just do me a favor, make sure I'm with you the next time the three of you decide to do that. And for the love of God relax, you guys look like you're about to pass out. Relax and take a seat. The only time you'd ever be fucked with me, is if you ended up shooting a civilian."

I hadn't realized that I had been holding my breath, but a second wave of relief washed over me when I exhaled and sank into the chair next to Pat. "Is that a Judge?" I asked, eyeing the disassembled revolver. Oh sure I knew what that weapon was even when it was in pieces, but I'd never seen one up close before.

"Yeah it is." Pat said smiling, as he reassembled his weapon. "I bought it from Intimidator's a few years ago. I call it the Samaritan."

"Hellboy." Rocky said eyeing the Judge.

"Nice." Pat responded as the revolver spun in his right hand. "Yeah I'm not a very good shot, luckily the Samaritan here-"

"Shoots really big bullets." The four of us said at the same time. It was silent for a few seconds, before we started laughing. We must have talked over an hour about what happened last night, and what the three of us fought against and killed to get noticed by MHI, before Pat's phone rang.

"Hello?" He spoke into the receiver, and the three of us shared a look when Pat's smile faded. "Earl, what's going on? Fort Bragg? We're on our way." He hung up and turned his attention to the three of us.

"Get your armor on rookies. It's game time."

Matt, Rocky, and I were racing towards the armory before Patt had finished speaking. I couldn't stop the feeling of unease in my stomach as I put on my armor. My dad was on base at Fort Bragg, I was hoping against hope that nothing had happened to him. If we could get down there before whatever nasty thing was terrorizing the base in North Carolina, and kill it before it set its sights on my dad the happier I'd be. I placed my full-sized Sig into the hip holster on my right where it was placed last night, while my smaller Sig was secured under my left armpit. I placed an extended twenty round magazine of three inch shells all packed with quadrangle buckshot into my Seiga. Whatever monster was spotted in North Carolina, I wasn't taking any chances due to it being into close proximity to my dad. I double checked the mags I had for my Galil before I loaded one into the rifle. I unsheathed my katana enjoying the slight ring it made when it cleared the polished oak wood scabbard.

Another katana lightly clashed with my own, making me jump slightly. "Your sword is very well made." Kai Leng said placing her own blade back into its scabbard, before proceeding to put her armor on.

Soon all eighteen hunters that composed our team had all their armor and weapons assembled, and we were making our way towards to my surprise and airfield. The Syracuse team had two airborne vehicles. The MH-6 Little Bird, and a Vietnam era Paratrooper plane which everyone boarded.

"What are we after Patrick?" The younger of the Fulani brothers, Ardeth asked our team leader as he made his way to the cockpit.

Pat shook his head, as he sat down. This plane had some work done on it, as the steel benches that one would normally see in most military planes designed for Paratroopers, had been replaced with what looked like twenty or so first class seats. My guess is that the first few rides the team had taken in this plane had been so uncomfortable, they had opted to replace the aircraft's benches with these seats. "Earl only said something about it being a very large mountain cat or a lion."

"Has to be a chimera." Alex's younger brother Thom said, as he sat down in another one of the seats.

"Undoubtedly a chimera." Kai said, and Thom smiled. But his smile faltered as she took a seat next to me. "Either that, or a hellcat."

"Well it won't kill itself with us just sitting around talking about whatever it might be." Pat said, before turning towards the cockpit. "Ardeth get her in the air."

"Of course." The younger of the Fulani brothers replied. "But first, the proper music." A smile crossed everyone's faces when AC/DC's _Shoot to Thrill_ blared through the plane's speakers. Apparently the seats weren't the only thing the team had renovated. Ardeth had installed a kick-ass speaker system inside the plane. The music drowned out the plane's engines, but it couldn't take away that feeling of nervous excitement that jolts through someone whenever an aircraft took off.

It was several hours later that our aircraft touched down with special clearance from the air tower at Fort Bragg. When the eighteen of us had disembarked, we were in for a surprise. Earl Harbinger and his team were waiting for us, all armed and ready for whatever it was that was here. "Well that explains the special clearance." Pat said flicking his safety off of his Halo sighted M4 rifle.

"Well we needed you on the ground as soon as possible." Earl replied exhaling smoke from the lit cigarette in his mouth. "The situation here is worse than we thought."

"Worse how?" Alex asked, brushing the smoke out of his face.

"You're going to want to hear this for yourself Morrison." Earl replied, and motioned for us to follow. I felt my cheeks redden when Holly Newcastle winked at me.

A soldier dressed in military fatigues was waiting for us standing stiff as a board. At Earl's prompting, the soldier launched into an explanation. "At oh-eight-hundred, a report of a wild cat being sighted in the mess hall was filled with Captain Roberts. Animal control was notified, and arrived at ten-hundred. That was the last anyone saw of them, until around twelve-thirty Sir."

"What happened?" Pat asked the soldier, as he led us towards the mess hall in question.

"When Private Jacobs went to check, he came out of the hall in a panic Sir. He reported he saw the large cat, but it wasn't like anything he'd ever seen." The soldier paused, stopped and turned to face us. "Private Jacobs reported that what he had seen, had the body and head head of a lion, but also the head of a goat, and a large snake where the tail should be."

"Chimera." All of us said at the same time.

"That's not all." The soldier continued. "Jacobs also reported to have seen several of these … Chimera's. One of which was feasting on the corpse of one of the animal control men we called in."

"How many chimera's did Privat Jacobs see soldier?" Pat asked, as he had resumed walking towards the mess hall.

"He reported seeing three, but he also said their might have been more." The soldier took his cap off to scratch the top of his shaved head once we had reached the mess hall in question. There were soldiers heavily armed, aiming an assortment of M4's and M16 rifles at the mess hall. I saw a few with M60's, and thought I caught a glimpse of a sniper's scope from one of the neighboring buildings in the early afternoon sunlight. Humvees armed with .50 caliber machine guns had also surrounded the building.

"I don't see those Chimera's getting out of this little blockade alive." Rocky said, running a hand slowly along the stock of his H&K 33A2. His rifle like my Galil was an ACE custom job. It had a collapsible stock, pistol grip and trigger job, a ported barrel, and a Trijicon TA31 4X32 ACOG scope.

"I hear you." I said, flicking the safety off of my Galil as Earl's team of eight, and our beefed up twenty man team moved past the military blockade.

Another heavily armed soldier stepped up to us. By the looks of him, he wasn't happy to see a group of civilian contractors carrying an assortment of modified automatic weapons. "Not that I don't appreciate the added firepower you civilians are adding, but I would prefer if you stood back behind…" His words cut off as he set his eyes on me. "James!?"

All eyes, hunter and soldier focused on me wondering what was going on. I sighed, and said in a resigned voice. "Hey dad."

"James just what in the fuck are you doing here!?" My dad growled at me.

"You remember that talk we had about the Second Amendment? The one you said only applied to cops and members of the armed forces?" I asked, my voice not wavering in the slightest as I asked my question.

"What about it?" My dad asked.

"I'm exercising that right as a private citizen." I smirked patting my Galil.

All further conversation ceased as an unbelievably loud roar made us all jump. The glass of the mess hall windows shattered, as several chimera's leapt out in a shower of shattered glass. All of us including my dad vaulted over the humvees, at the same moment dad yelled. "OPEN FIRE!"

Even though I had a pair of MHI issue electronic earplugs in my ears, the sound of all the overlapping gunfire was almost deafening. Once I had recovered from going ass over teakettle from vaulting over a humvee, I snapped up my Galil, zeroed in on the largest chimera, and squeezed the trigger. I was aiming for the lion's head, but the chimera moved to the side, and I ended up hitting the goat's head right above the main of golden fur of the lion's body. I saw the white fur of the goat's head explode like a disgusting moldy watermelon, and even though I'd missed my intended target, it was still satisfying to see one of the chimera heads explode.

"Nice shot Jimmi!" I heard Matt yell over the gunfire.

"What are you talking about!?" I said as I tried to get a bead on the lion's head. "I missed!"

"Well it was pretty good for a miss Hendrix!" I think that might have been Connor, as he ducked behind one of the humvees to reload his big M60.

I heard the distinct report of a rifle being discharged, and a moment later, the lion's head of the chimera I had been trying to focus on exploded in a fountain of blood and brain matter. Although I couldn't tell weather it was Dimitri, Thom, Julie, -Owen's wife who was the markswoman on Earl's team- Or one of the Marine snipers who had taken positions on the many roofs.

"How is it still standing!?" My dad's voice roared from next to me over all the gunfire.

"It's got three heads!" Alex yelled as he took cover behind the humvee to reload Gungnir. "That means three of everything! Hearts, lungs, brains! Shoot two heads off it can still move!" A large 40mm casing fell from the open port of Gungnir's undermounted launcher, right before he slid another explosive shell into the launcher. He popped up from his cover, and discharged the shell he had just loaded into Gungnir's undermounted launcher, at the same time Owen let a 40mm shell loose from his custom Saiga -I later found out that it was a Milo Anderson special called Abomination-. The explosive shells hit the lion's head at the same time, and the golden mane of the chimera vanished in a hail of fire and silver shrapnel.

I stood back up to fire, when I saw the serpent head of the Chimera that had two of its three heads destroyed, quickly slither and jump towards me. It happened again, just like last night with the werewolf I killed with my Seiga. Time seemed to slow down, I felt my eyes widen, and felt someone grab my arm and pull me down. I looked up just in time to see Rocky turn the serpent's head into red mist when Rocky pulled the trigger on his Mossberg.

"Thanks for that!" I said breathlessly, and also with a relieved sigh.

"Hey I owed you didn't I?" Rocky said, extending his hand helping me to my feet. "Besides which we still have two more two of those ugly bastards to kill!"

A second chimera charged forward, and almost everyone opened up on it. Bullets ripped into the golden fur of the lion's leg and mane. It lost its balance and slid along the asphalt, rolling along the pavement like a bad car wreck. Connor and Kai Leng continued firing, being supported by the gunners on the mounted .50 cal. The serpent's head was turned into red mist, the goat's head was blasted into a billion tiny pieces, and the lion's head was turned into hamburger.

"Better make that one." Connor said, a satisfied smirk on his face as he and Kai ducked behind to reload their LMGs.

Remember when I said that life could be difficult if not weird? Well here's one of those times. The final chimera charged with another loud glass shattering roar. The only head that had been destroyed on this one, was the goat. The four large paws of the lion's body moved almost blindingly fast. The mouth of the lion was pulled back in a snarl, and the serpent's tail swayed back and forth almost hypnotically. There was no way that anyone was going to get their guns up in time. Like I had last night with my Seiga, I let go of my Galil, allowing the sling to catch it it, and drew the katana sheathed and strapped to my left hip. I honestly had no idea what I was thinking, I just knew that we couldn't let that chimera get off the base. Right when the chimera jumped to clear the humvees, I swung with the three-soul blade. There was a long moment where I thought I had missed it. That I was just standing there with my katana outstretched, sun reflecting off of the steel blade. Then I heard something collapse to the pavement with a wet splattering sound.

"Dude that was fucking awesome!" I heard Owen exclaim, before I felt his large hand on my shoulder, giving it a congratulatory shake.

"You mean I killed it!?" I asked breathlessly astonished. Owen turned me around, and I saw the third chimera lying sliced in half on the pavement bleeding into the asphalt.

"That's two badass moments in less than twenty four hours dude!" Matt said stepping up to my left, and the two of us bumped fists without even looking at each other.

"Well this is all well and good." My dad said, and I turned to face him. He looked pale after what had happened. But then again who wouldn't look pale after fighting three chimeras? "But will someone tell me what the hell is going on!?"

…

"So you're telling me that you left college to become a … A monster bounty hunter?" I had explained everything that had happened up to and after Matt and I had been attacked by the five werewolves. Our training at MHI, and the two jobs we had since being assigned to Pat's team, one of which had just been completed.

"Yeah dad. That's exactly what I did." I replied wiping chimera blood off of my katana.

"Wow that is so cool!" I sighed and rolled my eyes at the excitement given off by Anthony. My younger sixteen year old step-brother. He loved everything to do with the supernatural, and I just knew that as long as I was here, I'd get bombarded with no end of questions about what I now do for a living. I'd have to exercise caution though. While I could tell Anthony, his older eighteen year old sister Jillian, and my step-mother Marlyn due to them somehow having witnessed the showdown with the chimeras, I didn't want to share too much information about MHI.

"Yeah it is Tony." I said placing my katana back into its scabbard. "But you have to promise me one thing, and you have to stick to this promise."

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"Never tell anyone else about what you saw here today."

"Why not?" Jillian asked in irritation. My younger step-sister was while irritated, really freaked out about what just went down. Although nothing about her facial features except that far off look in her eyes gave away just how freaked out she was.

"It's a federal law that's why." I said trying to calm her down, although I was clearly failing to do that.

"If it's a federal law." Dad started. I could tell he wanted answers. "How is it I've never heard of it before."

"That's an easy one." I replied. "It's because you've never heard of the agency that enforces it. Because, up until today, you've never came into contact with a supernatural creature."

"He's right Gunnery Sargent Woods." A voice said from somewhere behind me. I knew who that was.

"Agent Locke." I gave the Agent a small wave of greeting, which he returned.

"Just who are you?" My dad asked the acting director of the MCB.

"Agent James Locke. I'm the acting director of the agency you've never heard of due to your lack of contact with the supernatural."

"And what brings you here Mr. Locke?" Dad asked Locke.

"I'm here to press upon you my insistance you stay silent about what you've seen here today." The MCB director said in response to my dad's question.

Jillian nudged my arm. "What does he mean by that?" She asked, although I think she might have already knew the answer.

"What he means is: Don't ever mention what you saw here to anyone, or…" I drew my right thumb across my throat, in order to emphasize the consequences of what would happen should she not stay silent about today. I saw my step-mother's skin become pale, Anthony hid himself behind his older sister, who placed herself in front of him, and dad's jaw tighten and his fists clench, as if daring Locke to try and point a gun at his wife and children.

"Trust me Mr. Woods, I would much rather forget that today had ever happened. However should you and your family keep their words to stay silent, I give you my word, that you will never see me nor anyone else from my agency again." Dad seemed to be calmed down by Locke's words.

"Um hey, James?" I turned to Anthony who was still hiding slightly behind Jillian.

"What's up Tony?" I asked, turning my attention to my step-brother.

"What do werewolves really look like?" My eyebrows came together as I thought about that for a second.

"They're about seven to eight feet tall. Stand on two legs, but when they charge at you, they move on all four. Razor sharp claws and teeth. And their fur varies in color…" I paused as my sentence trailed off, a split-second before I put two and two together. "Why are you asking anyways?"

"Because there are werewolves standing on that roof." My head followed where he pointed, and I felt my blood chill. There were ten of them all in a low crouch on the roof of the mess hall.

"CONTACT!" I yelled at the same time as Locke. One of the wolves howled, and they charged at us. But there were more than just ten of them, I think a full three or four dozen more. Hunters and soldiers snapped up their weapons, and opened up on the wolves. They dropped sure, but the wolves barreled through the blockade the military humvees made around the mess hall, and made a beeline straight for me. I snapped up my Galil, and quickly zeroed in on the wolf leading the charge. I fired in short three bursts, trying to take down as many of the charging snarling wolves as I could before my rifle's magazine clicked empty. When that horrifying sound of my rifle finally clicking empty reached my ears, I let it go, and brought out my Seiga. I was glad I had loaded it with its extended twenty round magazine, as twenty rounds of quadrangle buckshot was expelled from the Russian made shotgun. I was pulling the trigger so fast, it was almost like I had set the shotgun to fire on full auto. But my stomach dropped again, when my Seiga clicked empty, the wolves were right on top of me, and there was no time to reload or go for my two other sidearms.

"Get the fuck away from my family!" My dad screamed and opened up on the closest wolf with his M4. It yelped in pain, and dropped to the ground. I saw locke had drawn as well. He had a pair of Desert Eagles. Both Locke and my dad had provided me time to reload, but I didn't do it.

"Get in here!" I yelled at my two step-siblings, as I wrenched open the door to one of the humvees that was farther away from the combat. I shoved Anthony and Jillian inside, then grabbed my step-mother, and put her into the vehicle as well. I hit the release on both the Seiga and the Galil, and both plastic empty magazines hit the asphalt with a loud clatter. I had just gotten a second twenty round extended drum into my Seiga, when I heard someone yell at me to check my six. I whirled around, and I swore I felt my heart stop. Seven feet of grey-furred werewolf was standing not two inches in front of me, its razor sharp fangs were bared, and oh damn was its breath horrible.

I had no chance to get my weapon up. The wolf opened its mouth in its preparation to bite, and I knew I was screwed about eight ways from Sunday … Or I would have been if a trio of rounds didn't bury themselves into the left of the werewolf's left temple. The grey-furred wolf spun 90 degrees, and the back of its head bumped against the bumper when it collapsed to the ground. Eyes wide, I spun to see who had just saved my ass ex-machina-style, and saw Kai Leng with a surppressed Tac 45 in her left hand. She turned her sidearm up, and let loose three more rounds. Something heavy collapsed against the roof of the humvee, and panicked screaming came from the inside of the military vehicle when the werewolf Kai had just ended caused the roof of said vehicle to slightly cave in.

"Thanks for that." I said, managing a weak smile when Kai joined me.

"Well then, the first round's on you when this is over." Kai said rather cheekily, dumping the last four rounds in her sidearm into the head and back of another charging werewolf. "Care to cover me? I need to reload."

I was more than happy to return the favor. I snapped up my Galil, and zeroed my Trijicon RMR reflex sight on a werewolf with black fur. I squeezed the trigger, and a trio of rounds made the werewolf's right leg give out. I moved my rifle's scope so the small red dot rested on the creature's head. Three more 30 caliber rounds to the head put an end to that wolf. I zeroed in on another wolf, this one had silver fur. I put three rounds into its abdomen, three more into its right shoulder, then three more into its head at the eye.

My magazine clicked empty, and I went fishing for a fresh one, when I was lifted off of my feet by a pair of clawed hands. My eyes widened, and I gasped for air, when I came nose to snout with a light brown furred werewolf. It snarled at me, but it's long clawed fingers didn't close around my throat. Nor did it bite me. Instead it did something that chilled me to the core.

The werewolf spoke.

"The Alpha want's you." It snarled at me.

The wolf was then forced to let go of me, when something tackled it to the ground. I hit the asphalt, and dropped to my knees trying to get air back into my lungs, which wasn't easy when I was coughing and sputtering. When I was finally able to breathe properly, I saw who it was who had tackled the werewolf who spoke to me. Rocky had the wolf on it's back, and was wailing on it with the fingers of his right hand inserted into a pair of brass knuckles. No doubt the same knuckles he used to beat that vampire's head into jelly back in Philly.

"Rock wait!" I yelled grabbing his arm, before he swung down again. "Don't kill this one! Not this one!"

"What!?" His question was incredulous. "Why not!?"

"Yeah kid why not?" Earl asked, having jogged up and aiming his Thompson submachine gun at the wolf.

"It spoke to me." I said, letting go of Rockie's arm, and pointing my Sig at the wolf. Just because I didn't want to kill it, doesn't mean I wanted it doing anything but staying still.

"Spoke to you?" Earl asked with his brow furrowed. "What did it say?"

"It said … It said the Alpha wanted me."


	6. Chapter 6

Earl had set up a makeshift interrogation room in one of the empty hangar bays. The werewolf that had said that the Alpha that had sent this attack party turned out to be a rather attractive woman -I know right? Always a woman- somewhere between her late 20's or early 30's. Steel blue eyes, reddish brown hair that was unkempt and fell down to her shoulders. She was tightly bound to a chair by some real heavy-gage chain, and had no less than 10 rifles pointed at her. I almost felt bad for her. I mean yeah her and her … if you could call it a pack, had attacked a large Marine base that was occupied with two Hunter teams at the time. And she had tried, and ultimately failed to kidnap me and bring me to her Alpha. But if the situations were reversed, I would much rather have been shot than hog-tied via chain to a real uncomfortable looking chair, about to face what could become a real violent interrogation.

"Alright." Earl began lighting up a cigarette. "Let's start with something easy. What's your name?"

The look that woman shot Earl in that moment. Now I'm not saying that a look could kill someone as badass as Earl Harbinger, but if looks could kill… Then as if she thought better than to incite someone like Earl, the woman spoke. "Riza, my name is Riza."

"Alright, good start. Now thing's are gonna pick up. Why did your Alpha send you to attack and kidnap my newest recruit?"

Riza sighed, and was silent for a few seconds. "It's … complicated, and I don't know all the details."

"Well start with what you do know." Pat said, stepping up to Earl's side. His M4 was braced against his hip, and he had it aimed at Riza. "And don't bullshit us."

"Alright," Riza began. "It was about I'd say close to a year ago. Two humans killed five members of our pack without getting a scratch on them." I became uncomfortably aware that every Hunter's eyes were on me and Matt when Riza said this. Riza followed everyone's gaze, and her eyes fell on the two of us. "You two? But you're pups."

Earl sighed, and exhaled cigarette smoke from his mouth when he did. "Pups or not, they still put five wolves down without getting a scratch on them."

Riza groaned and shook her head, as when Earl blew out the cigarette smoke, he blew it right into her face. "Well that got the attention of our Alpha. One of the wolves they killed was the brother of his second in command."

"So…" I began, "We piss off your boss by killing the brother of his second in command. See where this gets confusing?"

"Look pup," Riza coughed as Earl blew more smoke in her face. "I said it just a few seconds ago, that I don't know all the details about what's going on. I was just sent-"

"To take us to your Alpha." Matt cut across.

"Wrong." Riza barked. "My Alpha sent me to send a message. Now I don't know how much you know about my kind, but we don't exactly talk all that well while we're seven foot tall killing machines. I meant to say that the Alpha wanted to talk to you."

"Well he could have set a meeting, or at the very least called." Earl growled, taking a long drag on his cigarette, before flicking it away.

"Well the extent of what I know is this. My Alpha's second in command is in the middle of a hostile takeover of my pack, all because my Alpha refused to go after the humans who killed his brother."

"So what? You're a double in your pack at the moment?" Pat asked, brushing the smoke from Earl's finished cigarette out of his face. Riza nodded, and Pat groaned taking out a cigarette of his own.

"Thought you quit Martin." Earl said, handing my team leader his zippo.

"This situation is confusing and stressful as hell Earl." Pat replied lighting the cigarette. "What do we do now? I mean we got a pissed off pack of wolves in the middle of a civil war with each other, who are also gunning for two of my three rookies."

Earl lit up another cigarette after Pat handed him back his zippo. "Well until we get word from … if you could even call him or her and Alpha anymore, we do our jobs. Any more of this pack comes after us, specifically your two newbies, take 'em down."

"And what about her?" Alex asked gesturing to Riza.

"She goes with my team for now." Earl replied, expelling more smoke. "We'll keep an eye on her at all times. If she's telling the truth about this Alpha, she'll be useful in pointing out where these wolves lay their heads."

"I'll have my men escort her back to Cazador Earl." Locke said, holstering one of his twin D-gle's.

About twenty minutes later, a humvee pulled up to the curb right outside my dad's place followed by several SUV's that Locke had lent to us. Earl had decided that against my wishes not to, my family as well as Matt's should stay up at the Syracuse compound. I was against it, due to the fact that I didn't want them anywhere near me or Matt should the pack we had pissed off try and make another attempt at me. However Earl while also being my boss, had said that all MHI compounds were so secure, you could drop a nuke on every last one of them, and you wouldn't even feel it. He wasn't phased by a few wolves. But I digress. Matt, Rocky, and I went in first just to make sure there wasn't a werewolf waiting in ambush. There wasn't, and my dad, step-mom, and siblings were soon inside packing everything they could. My attention was drawn to the back yard, where a large Mastiff stood at the glass doors to the kitchen, barking to be let inside.

"Easy Peretas, take it easy girl." I said, opening the door. The large dog who was up to my chest barreled into me, knocking me on my ass, and proceeded to cover my face with happy licks.

"Woah who is this?" Rocky asked as he stepped into the kitchen, and his eyes fell onto the large dog.

"This is Peretas." I said, and the Mastiff barked at the mention of her name, and I took that time to push the 200 plus pound Mastiff off me before wiping my face clean of dog slobber. "My dad named her after the Mastiff owned by Alexander The Great."

"Is uh, is she friendly?" He asked, clearly nervous due to Peretas' size and what he had just seen do to me..

"Peretas, go say hello to Rocky." Peretas trotted over to the other hunter, and sat at his feet with her large tail wagging. Rocky smiled slightly, and ran his hand through Peretas' large bushy mane of fur. A low rumbling growl sounded from the large Mastiff, as she closed her eyes, and her tail began to wag faster.

"Oh look at that Rock you made a friend." Matt said entering the kitchen, and squatting to rub Peretas' sides. I'd brought Matt down here twice a few summers ago. He got along really well with my family, and especially with Peretas since Matt was a dog lover who unfortunately, had never gotten the chance to own a dog growing up. Peretas barked happily upon seeing Matt, and in one swipe of her large tongue, licked Matt from the bottom of his chin, to the top of his forehead.

"Eww, gross Peretas!" Matt laughed trying to rub dog slobber off his face.

"So is she gonna come with us?" Rocky asked.

I'd grabbed Peretas' leash from the key rack that was right next to the sliding glass doors that led from the kitchen into the back yard. "She's a good guard dog so she's not gonna stay here." I said and whistled for the large dog, who came back and sat at my feet obediently, allowing me to attach the leash to her collar, which wasn't easy as it was hidden under her large mane. Twenty minutes later, everyone was all packed, and ready to go. We were back at the base soon after, as my family was going up to Syracuse with the rest of us. Locke and his agents, had agreed to drive my families belongings up. You know I gotta hand it to Locke, while he could be a little disagreeable due to the nasty little clause, that bound him to silence anyone who openly spoke of the supernatural, he was a pretty stand up guy.

When we finally landed back home, Peretas went crazy in sniffing out the new environment. Marlyn wasn't too happy in having to go into MHI's version of witness protection, and neither was Jillian. That was until they saw the interior of the compound. With twenty of us on the team, it wouldn't be too hard to take jobs, and guard my family. Earl had given them the okay to go where they wanted to in Syracuse, as long as no less than five members of our team went with the at all times. As for me, It was another long day. Two werewolf attacks in two days, and I was exhausted physically and mentally, and just like night when I went to bed I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

Agent Locke and his agents arrived the next day with my families belongings. The feds had also made a stop in Fulton to both explain the situation in its entirety to Matt's Family, and to bring them up to the compound with whatever they could fit into one of the SUVs. Matt's family would have to be the one percent exception to everyone else who lives in Fulton. Meaning that the Reese's are by no means deadbeat food stampers, or Pabst Blue Ribbon swilling rednecks, and they are sure as hell not raging, violent alcoholics. Matt's mom Emily was a teacher at my old high school. I said that in past tense, due to her retiring in our sophmore year of college. She had a tough job though, as most of the students in that school were lazy racist pieces of shit, who thought they were above everyone else. Then again, Mrs. Reese wasn't above giving the most outspoken kids a good kick in the ass. Matt's father Matthew Sr. works for the New York State Sheriffs. He's the reason his son loves guns so much, and also like father, like son, Matthew is a designated marksman when the situation calls for it. Matt is also the oldest of four other siblings. He had a younger brother named Dean who was eighteen, and two sisters. Katelyn who was sixteen, and Abbigail who prefers to be called Abby who was two years younger than Katelyn.

Matthew Sr looked around the compound warily, as if he was expecting something to jump out, or for someone to start shooting -his hand was on his hip, lightly gripping a Glock-19 much like mine-. Several minutes later, seemingly satisfied that nothing and nobody was going to open fire on him and his family, he relaxed his grip on his sidearm. After several hours of explaining about what MHI does, Sr seemed satisfied. Matt's younger brother Dean was unlike Sr, much more excited at what his older brother and his closest friend now did for a living. Matt was more than happy to allow Dean to test out his FAL. Dean was in love with the rifle at the first shot. Emily did not want Katelyn or Abby anywhere near our compound's armory, or shooting range, and Matt being the oldest sibling in his family was in agreement with his mother and father.

Tony though, he practically begged me to let him try out some of the weapons we had in reserve. Oh Marlyn was adamantly against it, but after reminding her that there was a large pack of real PO'd werewolves after us, she relented as she saw how good an idea it would be having someone else in the family that knew how to handle a firearm.

"Alright we're gonna start out off with some easy ones, work our way up from there." I'd laid out several rifles in front of him. The M1 Grand, The M25 sniper rifle,which is basically an M14 on steroids, and a standard FN FAL. "Most important things about firing your weapon. _One_ take three deep breaths, and when you exhale for the third time that's when you fire. _Two_ don't think about pulling the trigger, just focus on that third breath." Now I don't know wether or not dad hat taken Tony shooting before, but he was a crack shot with a rifle. And I mean a _crack_ shot. He hit a target dead center mass at 500 yards with _every_ rifle he tried, and I just knew that I was looking at a future Hunter wether his parents liked it or not.

Now I hate spiders. I don't just mean they give me a case of the shivers, no I mean no matter the size and shape of the spider is enough to make me leave whatever room I'm in. But the only person on the team who knew that was Matt, so when Our team got called out take care of something in Portland Maine, the last thing I _ever_ expected to go after was a giant arachnie.

When we got the call, I was in the compounds armory putting together several different tactical vests and loadouts together. I had made a new purchase at Intimidator a few days before the job involving the giant arachne. That purchase being and Uzi 9mm that I had converted to fire .45 ACP with some help from dad and Mr. Reese, and had adapted it to sport a silencer. The armory also doubled as a workshop, so the team had everything we needed to assemble, fix, and modify our weapons. The sidearm to go along with my silenced Uzi since Brian still didn't have any 1911's in stock, was still going to be my full sized Sig. So two dozen pistol mags went into the tac vest I had designated via the large letters I'd placed on the duct tape on the top of the tac vest, as my CQC vest, as well as another two dozen mags for my new Uzi. I also placed 10 magazines into the remaining slots on the vest for my Saiga.

I'd also brought out my AR-10 from its case in my grandpa's old 1968 Mustang. Don't get me wrong, while I loved my Galil, I'd had this rifle longer and damned if I didn't use it now that I was a monster hunter. I placed a dozen full silver .308 mags into the vest, two dozen more pistol mags for my Sig, and slotted in two dozen loose shells for my twin 1887's. One last thing left to do, and that was placing a strip of silver duct tape at the top of the vest, with the abreviation 'MKSMN' meaning 'marksman'.

"New equipment?" I jumped in surprise when Kai Leng's voice came from behind me.

"Oh Jesus Christ!"

"No, my name is Kai." She replied, a joking smirk on her face.

"Oh very funny." I sighed, checking my pulse which was going through the roof at that moment. "Don't sneak up on a guy like that."

"I didn't mean to frighten you." Kai said, before her eyes ran over all of my hardware. "Quite impressive, but I thought that the Uzi mangled forty five ammo."

"Normally yeah, the Uzi would mangle forty five ammo something nasty. But thanks to my dad and Mr. Reese, that's not a problem anymore." I replied, feeling really proud of the work the three of us had done on my new Uzi.

"That's something I'd like to see." She said, tracing her fingers along the silencer.

I shook my head to clear it of the racy thoughts that were swirling about in my mind, before my brain had processed what she said. "Wanna test her out?"

"Thought you'd never ask." She replied, and I grabbed a handful of magazines before the two of us made our way to the range.

Dan and Anthony along with dad, Mr, Reese, and John were testing out various rifles when we entered the range. Well that is to say, Alex's older brother John was firing his H&K 417 at a target downrange. John was Alex's older brother, and was a U.S. Army Ranger for about a decade. He was a Sergeant, and well on his way to Lieutenant before he resigned to join up with MHI. Dad and Mr. Reese were observing their sons accuracy. Tony had fallen in love with the FAL that he'd fired when I had instructed -if you could even call it that- him how to shoot. Dean however, preferred the M16. Not a bad choice really. It was a real nice reliable rifle for all occasions.

"Testing out that Uzi?" Dad asked, when he saw Kai with my new subgun in her hands.

"I am. I'm curious to see how it fires." She replied.

"Well the range is hot, have at it."

"Kai walked up to one of the firing blocks that wasn't occupied. She hit the red button on the side of the block, and a metal target popped up on the range. "Let's see what this thing can do." She said as I handed her one of the magazines I'd brought with me. She loaded it in, racked the handle back to chamber the first round, and let loose with the subgun as she fired in three and four round bursts until the magazine was empty. Oh yeah, I probably should have mentioned that despite Kai firing in bursts, I had converted the Uzi to fire on full auto.

"James," She said, as she ejected the spent mag. "I want one of these."

"What is that?" John asked, he'd made his way over to us, the safety on his 417 flicked on. "Uzi on full auto? You know the Uzi mangles forty five ammo on full auto."

Kai and I looked at one another, then at my new Uzi, before she handed the weapon to John. "Try it for yourself."

"Oh this is gonna be good." John said, taking the Uzi from Kai after I handed him of of the three magazines I had. "Alright, goin' hot!" It only took a few seconds to empty the magazine, but that was all it took for John to fall in love with my Uzi. "Okay, put this on my Christmas list. I want one."

"Fires good?" Mr. Reese asked. There was a satisfied smile on his face, due to the appreciation of our hard work.

"Bet your ass it fires good Sir." John replied.

"Mind if I try it out James?" Tony asked, setting down the FAL. The magazine he was unloading was currently sitting next to the rifle now spent.

It was around then, Alex's father Lucas walked into the armory. I thought that with that hardened expression of his, that he would have been a Hunter for a longer period of time. Turns out I was wrong. He'd only been with MHI for only a few years. Alex was the senior Hunter in his family, and had been a Hunter for close to a year before the rest of his family became introduced to the supernatural via a zombie outbreak in downtown Syracuse. Lucas, John and Thom had assisted MHI in containing and ending the outbreak, and had been with the company ever since. Now from the look on his face, I could tell we had another job. "James, find Matt and Richard, and get your gear together."

"Do we have another job Sir?" I asked, taking back my Uzi from John.

"We have another job." Lucas replied. "Find them, and get your gear together."

I hadn't known that our compound had a gym, as I'd only been a part of the team for two, no wait make that three days, but we did and that was where I found Matt and Rocky after depositing my Uzi back in the armory. I watched as Matt and Rocky exchanged in the large boxing/wrestling ring in the center of the gym. I gave an appreciative whistle, as Matt hooked his legs around Rockie's head, and sent him ass over teakettle with a hurricanrana.

"I told you I could do that!" Matt yelled, bouncing on the balls of his feet waiting for Rocky to get back to his feet. "Told you I watched too much professional wrestling as a kid!"

"Your friend is quite the show off." Kai Leng said as she walked up and stood next to me.

"Well he did just say he watched too much pro wrestling as a kid." I replied with a friendly smile, as Matt and Rocky launched into another exchange.

"As did I." She said opening a water bottle. "I was a fan of the late Eddie Guerrero." I couldn't tell weather or not it was heavy coincidence -or that I hadn't noticed earlier- that Kai was wearing an old Eddie Guerrero t-shirt with the faded white words _I'm Your Papi_ printed along the front.

"Yeah, I really miss him. Don't tell anyone else this, but I actually cried on the Monday Night Raw episode that announced Eddie's death. I mean cried like a little baby." I replied, as Rocky swept Matt's feet out from under him, sending him crashing down to the mat back first.

"So did I." She said, her eyes slightly downcast. I felt a surge of guilt shoot through me. I couldn't really explain it at the time, but I didn't like seeing her upset. But a few moments later, her expression became neutral, and almost questioning. "What about you? Your favorite wrestler would be?"

"Um it switched." I replied. "It was Sean Michaels, up until he had to retire after losing to the Undertaker for the second time. Now it's The Phenomenal AJ Styles."

"Ah a good choice." Kai smiled, as Rocky caught Matt, and deposited my friend back first emulating The Rock's signature move the Rock Bottom.

"Thank you." I replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go play reff." I ran towards the ring, sliding into the ring beneath the bottom rope. I hit the mat with my right palm three times as Rocky pinned Matt. There was a scattering of applause, that came from the few of my team that had entered the gym, as I raised Rockie's hand before helping Matt to his feet.

"Alright guys," I began, as Matt and Rocky shook hands. "Grab your gear. Mr. Morrison says we have a job."

"Coolness, it's game time." Matt said, before taking hold of the top rope, pulling it back and vaulting over the rope, and onto the floor.

"Where at?" Rock asked, mirroring Matt's movements with vaulting over the top rope onto the floor.

"He didn't say. Just to get our gear together." I said, and waited until I thought the room was clear, before grabbing the top rope, and shaking it in a manner similar to the Ultimate Warrior. At least I thought that the room was clear, up until I heard a beautiful sounding laugh. My stomach jolted in surprise, and I looked up to see that Kai was still standing where she was when we had our small conversation moments before. "You saw that?"

She smiled, and nodded. "I did, but we should get to the armory. Lucas isn't the sort of person you want to keep waiting."

The two of us quickly made our way back to the armory, Kai having promised that she wouldn't tell anyone about my emulation of the we got there, Matt Rocky, Lucas and John weren't the only ones assembling their gear. The Fulani brothers Ardeth and Farid were already set and ready to go. Our demo guy who was also named James, nicknamed 'Fireball' by Connor, was loading a large drum into his AA12. Connor who I had mentioned, was loading a large 200 round ammo box into his large M60, before retrieving a large Browning .30 caliber from a weapon bench on the far side of the armory.

"Ooookay, any particular reason you're gonna rock and roll with that Ma Duce?" James asked.

"That's simple," Lucas began, loading his M16. From what Alex said, he had that rifle all the way through his own career as a Ranger. "I told him to bring it, we might need it."

"Need it for what exactly dad?" John asked reloading his 417. "You never said where we're going or what we're hunting."

"Portland Maine." Lucas replied, checking his 1911. "We're going after an arachnie. For you three rookies, that's a big giant spider."

"Oh hell no." I said dropping my Uzi mag. "I don't do spiders of any size."

"Afraid of spiders Jimmi?" John asked, picking up my dropped mag.

"Terrified." I replied, as a shudder went up my spine.

"You know Dimitri has a saying for conquering your fears." John said. "My Russian isn't too good, but I think the translation is 'the best way to conquer your fears, is to kill it'."

"So what you're saying is … kill the shit out of the giant fucking spider?"

"And we have a winner." John replied, handing me back my Uzi mag.

"Alright fine." I sighed in resignation, loading the magazine into my new subgun. "We need anything else? Anything special?"

"Explosives, and incendiaries." James replied, hefting up two large duffel bags. "Don't worry Hendrix, I've got us all covered."

"Well it's not gonna kill itself." I said, pulling my CQC tac vest over my armor, and making sure all my gear was secure. I didn't know that my hands were shaking, until Kai's right hand rested on top of my left.

"I know how you feel," She began softly. "I'm afraid of lyndwyrms. Which is ironically how I got my start. That particular lyndwyrm injured me pretty bad. That was until I destroyed the cave it was dwelling in. Ironically, it was this very team that was sent after the wyrm in the first place."

"But how did you…?" I began, and my sentence trailed off.

"Egypt several years ago. We went after another lyndwyrm in Cairo, which was almost the same size as the pyramids." She explained.

"Jesus…"

She nodded and continued. "We had brought our Little Bird with us, and before Farid or Ardeth could, I got into the cockpit. I know how to fly a helicopter before you ask. I flew the Little Bird straight towards the lyndwyrm, and fired several missiles into its open mouth."

My mouth must have fallen open, because she closed it a second later. "Damn you are a badass woman."

She laughed that beautiful laugh again, before lightly patting my cheek with her slender fingers. "Were you just flirting with me?" She asked whispering that in my ear, so nobody else could hear.

"Just a little." I admitted. I couldn't help it, I've said it before she's highly attractive. She laughed once again, and lightly tapped my cheek with her fingers again, but quickly retracted her hand when loud footsteps reached our ears.

Thom ran into the armory, and for a guy in as good of shape as he was, looked slightly winded. Like he had just heard we were going out on a job. "You guys going out without me?"

"Just an arachne Thom." John said. "Nothing to worry about."

"You guys might need me though." Thom countered, weak counter though it was.

John sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know the deal Thom. Besides we can handle this, its just a spider."

I had no idea what this 'deal' was at that point, and apparently Thom didn't like whatever it was, but had to go along with whatever it was. "Alright," He said in a resigned tone. "See you guys when you get back. Oh, wait hold up! I got something for the rookies."

Thom dug into his pocket, and dug out three patches that were embroidered with a blazing skull. "Team patches," Thom explained. "Now you guys are official members of the team." After slapping the blazing skull onto my armor, the 9 of us made our way to the team's plane. I was still wondering what 'deal' was made where Thom couldn't go out on hunts with us.

Don't worry though, that'll be explained later.

MHI had bought a small private airstrip just outside of Portland. I learned later that the company had small airstrips like this all over the country. One of the hangars on this particular airstrip housed a small convoy of SUVs, which is where we headed after our plane touched down, and Ardeth killed the engines. Three large SUVs rolled out of the airstrip. Lucas, Ardeth, Farid, and Rocky were in the lead vehicle. John, Kai, Matt, and myself were in the second. That left James and Connor with all our gear and ammo bringing up the rear.

"Where is this thing calling home anyways?" I asked, feeling once again incredibly nervous.

"Best guess is some sort of cave," John said. "Arachnie's prefer the dark and the cold, so probably a cave close to the water."

"Perfect. Cold, dark, _and_ spiders." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Remind me why I agreed to this one again?"

"That's because you don't know what an arachnie goes for." John laughed, as we passed through the city of Portland.

"I hate myself, but I'll bite." I groaned. "What do they go for?"

"Arachnie offspring go for about eighty grand. And there'll always be offspring when you go after one of these things. Adult arachnie's are worth about two hundred grand."

"I think I just got over my fear of spiders." I replied, which made everyone in the SUV laugh including me. 10 minutes later, the team arrived at the scene of the crime. The area was cordoned off with police tape, and there were about a dozen squad cars surrounding the area.

The site was on the northern end of the city, where a small trail leads up to the side of a real steep cliff that overlooks the port and the Atlantic beyond that. It's actually a real nice sight for a dating couple. And the unfortunate part was that a dating couple and their friends went spelunking on that cliffside. One of them had found the cave a few days before, and had persuaded everyone else to go and explore the cave. Well the poor bastards got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across the arachnie nest. The large spiders had attacked the group, dragging several of them deeper into their nest. Only one person had reached the entrance of the cave, and climbed back up the side of the cliff.

"This is gonna suck." Rocky said, as he looked over the side of the cliff.

"Don't like heights?" Matt asked, as James produced ropes, anchors and D-links from one of the duffel bags he'd brought. Rocky shook his head in response, as he backed away from the cliffside.

"Alright," Lucas began, once all ropes and D-links were secured. "I'll go down first with Connor, John, and James." He meant our demo guy, who was the more experienced Hunter. "Kai. You, James, Matt, and Richard come down after us. Understand?"

"Yes sir." We all said at the same time.

"Alright then. Let's go hunting."


	7. Chapter 7

Why the people who went spelunking in this cave thought it was a good idea to go to this cave I will never know. The whole damn place was covered in spiderwebs, and each individual strand of _every_ web was at least a foot wide. I had to surpress both a shudder, and the urges to vomit, piss, and shit myself at the same damn time. I did say I hated spiders didn't I?

"Someone's been through here already," Lucas said, crouching down examining the floor of the cave. "And I don't mean the civi's that came through here that got dragged off, no another Hunter's been through here. Judging by the five-five-six shells all around, they're probably about ten minutes ahead of us." There was a burst of echoed gunfire, that came from deeper into the cave. "Better make that three minutes ahead."

"Well whoever they are, let's not keep them waiting." John said.

"More importantly, this guy is stealing our bounty." Matt scoffed.

"Right then. Connor, stay here and get that thirty cal setup." Lucas began. "Miss Leng, you take point."

Our formation as we moved towards the sound of gunfire was Kai, James, myself, John, Lucas, Matt, and Rocky brought up the rear. Despite the fact the things were dead, a huge shiver ran up my spine every time one of the dead arachnie legs brushed against one of mine.

I felt my blood chill when I chanced a glance down. The damn thing was the size of a Volkswaggon. An eight legged, eight eyed, incredibly hairy Volkswaggon. Only good thing about it that I found, was that the arachnie was riddled with bullet holes. _Good. Only good spider is a dead spider_. I thought to myself, as we passed by dozens more arachnie corpses. Whoever had done this was either a team, or a serious pro. My hopes were on team.

Here's a pro tip for you: If you're hoping for one thing to happen over another, the thing you were hoping to happen won't nine times out of ten. So when I was hoping for another team over a serious pro, guess what I got? If you guessed serious pro, you win the prize. Of course, sometimes not getting what you wished for can also be a good thing. I don't want to say this guy was slaughtering these damn spiders, but for lack of a better term, that was _exactly_ what this person was doing.

Whoever this person was, they were armored like a _Call of Duty_ juggernaut. There was a ski mask covering their face, only leaving the eyes exposed, so on top of that and the armor I couldn't tell if this person was male or female. But the thing that struck me as odd. Yeah, more odd than one person blasting away at a nest of arachnie's armed with just a FAMAS assault rifle. More odd than the large tac vest that was over stuffed with magazines for said rifle. Yeah, more odd than any of those things. The oddest thing I noticed on this person, was the SAS patch on the right sleeve of their heavy armor. Yeah the oddest thing about whoever this person was, was that they were British. Before you ask, no no I don't hate the British, I was just surprised that a British Hunter was here.

Didn't get more time to process that thought, because right after that Lucas yelled "OPEN FIRE!" Nobody needed telling twice. Seven Hunters all opened up on the Volkswaggon sized spiders. Several spiders burst into flames, to which I chalked up to James' AA12. I'd forgotten that he always loaded that assault shotgun with incendiary shells.

The arachnies let out this horrible unearthly screech as a wall of silver slammed into them. Weird thing is, they weren't trying to attack us. To me it looked like they were trying to get away. Almost like they were…

"They're trying to get to their queen!" Lucas roared over the incredibly loud sound of the overlapping gunfire. And the fact that we were in a cave where the sound was amplified a hundredfold didn't help. "Reload, and get after them now!"

I fished a magazine out of my tac vest, and slammed it home. The charging handle snapped forward, and I was once again ready to rock and roll. Odd thing is, while I was terrified of spiders, I felt braver now that it was time for some sort of action. I guess what John had said about Dimitri's way of facing your fears really was correct.

"You want point Jimmi?" Lucas asked the second the charging bolt on my Uzi snapped forward.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact hell yeah." I said transitioning to my Saiga. I'd made sure to load incendiary shells into it before we rapelled down the side of the cliff. I was surprised with myself, because if I haven't said it before, I was terrified of spiders. But then again, if you're afraid of something, you tend to forget your fear when you're holding an automatic Russian shotgun loaded with incendiary shells.

So if you're wondering what barbequed giant-ass spider smells like. If you've ever set your hair on fire for one reason or another, take that smell, then combine it with the stench of an open sewer pipe. Yeah, un-fucking-plesant. Matter of fact, vomit inducing un-fucking-plesent. Hell the only thing that kept me from losing what little I'd eaten that day, was that every time I immolated one of those arachnies, I saw dollar signs pop up. Yeah the thought of the large payout this job would yield, prevented me from vomiting.

Oh, there's another tip for you: If you ever think that you're about to vomit on a job like this, think of the payout. It worked on this job, and on multiple other jobs I'd have after this. But we'll get to that later.

"Oh fuck me they smell horrid," Matt groaned, right before tasting his breakfast for the second time.

"Bet that tasted worse than these things smell," Rocky scoffed, as I fished in my tac-vest for another incendiary mag. We'd pushed the arachnies back into their nest, which was covered wall to wall and floor to ceiling in foot-wide spiderwebs.

"This is weird," Lucas said inspecting the arachnie nest. "Where the hell're all the missing people?"

"More than that," The British Hunter began, and the second surprise of the day was that I had expecting a British accent. What I and everyone else heard was a French accent. What the hell was a French guy doing in the British SAS? And on top of that why was a Frenchie with a British Hunting company? My brain hurt from all the questions I was asking myself. "Where in the hell the queen?"

After lightly whacking my head with my palm, in order to clear it of all the confusing questions, I noticed that both Lucas and the French/Brittish Hunter had a point. There was no trace of either the arachnie queen, or the missing people. Something wasn't adding up here.

"So no victims," I said, ticking off things on my fingers. "No queen, and no leeds. What the hell is going on? And what the hell are we missing?"

"I think I have a lead," Kai said, her brow creased like she was doubting what she was about to say. "Although it's a long shot. A very long shot."

"Go on, tell us Kai." Lucas said.

"There's another type of supernatural spider," She began, tapping the fingers of her right hand along her M249 Para. "But they're very rare, almost extinct."

"What are they?" John asked.

"They're called Jouroguomo," Kai continued. "They're a Japanese legend. They can take the form of an attractive Japanese woman to lure their prey into their layer. When they devour their victims, they don't leave anything save a puddle of flesh."

"And these things can command arachnies?" Matt asked, before retching from the smell of the burning spiders.

"Yes, which is one of the reasons they've been hunted to near extinction." Kai replied.

"Okay," I began. "If they can control other spider monsters, pretty much leave no trace of their victims, and then there's the fact they can transform into an attractive woman…" And that's when everything hit me. The woman who had explained everything about the situation was an attractive Asian woman that nobody had given a second thought to. At least up until right now, plus she seemed slightly familiar to me. But I couldn't for the life of me put my finger on it. "Oh fuck me. The woman who told us everything. She was Asian, high probability she was Japanese. And if my little hair-brained theory is right, she's the Jouroguomo."

There was a collective look between the team including the French/British Hunter, in which we all registered one thing: Oh. Shit. The seven of us hauled ass past the burning spider corpses towards the cave's entrance. Lucas had barked over the com line for conner to pack up the Deuce lightning quick, James had stayed behind, because he was planting a large explosive charge in the Jouroguomo/arachnie nest. I had no idea how we got up the cliffside so fast, but when we got to the bottom of the hill where the police had blocked off the area, Matt, Rocky, and myself all ended up vomiting.

I hate being right sometimes. The Japanese woman who was with the cops, had indeed turned out to be this Jouroguomo that Kai had mentioned. The cops that were with her … Well they were nothing but fleshy puddles. You want an example? Watch the episode of _Supernatural_ that involves a shapeshifter. You see, in that series whenever a shapeshifter takes on the form of another person, they leave behind a fleshy puddle of the person they had previously been. And _that_ is _exactly_ what was left of the officers. On top of that, one of the cruisers were missing.

"Oh goddamnit, this is gonna be a very long day." I groaned as I came up from depositing my breakfast on the asphalt.


	8. Chapter 8

I was right in saying that this was gonna be a long day, but we had lucked out with several things. The first being that the cruiser that the Jouroguomo had stolen after liquifying the officers who were on site was lo-jacked, meaning that it could be tracked in live time. The second thing we lucked out with, was that the Portland P.D. chief knew who we were and why we were here, so he had no qualms about us just barging into his precinct armed for war. Because that's exactly what we did. Lucas notified Locke and the MCB about the situation, and the acting director had promised to find out who this particular Jouroguomo was, and who or what she was after. Locke also said that when he found her, that we would be the first call he made.

With no arachnie queen to kill, our job in Portland was finished. We met back up with James at the small airstrip just outside the city. He reeked of burnt spider, but more strongly of napalm. I hoped the plane had airsick bags, because I had a feeling that Matt was going to end up puking on the flight back. I hate being right sometimes.

Another thing about me that I don't like, is take off. I have no qualms about flying once the plane is in the air, but when the plane is trying to gain altitude, I'm praying to God that we don't crash. That and I'm gripping the armrests on my seat with enough force to bend a steel beam 90 degrees. What? I'm in a metal tube thousands of feet in the air. Gravity works I've seen evidence of it my entire life. If something happens, we're fucked.

When we finally landed back at the compound, there was no time to rest. Thom had met us at the airstrip, and from the look on his face, something big had to be going down. "Don't put your weapons away yet guys. We got another call about something nasty going down at OCC."

"Why isn't Patrick handling this?" Lucas asked, his eyes narrowed as he asked his youngest son that question.

"There was another call about an hour ago up at SU." Thom replied shuddering. "Demons coming out of the goddamn computers again."

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean 'again'?" I asked incredulously. "Demons have come out of computers up at SU _before_!?"

"Not SU specifically," Thom replied. "Actually it's the first time that's happened up there."

"Any idea what it is?" John asked, as we quickly made our way to the garage and the team's SUV's.

"My guess is a troll," Thom replied. "We got the call not ten seconds before you guys landed. A group of construction workers were renovating one of the buildings, two of them hadn't been heard from for a few hours, so they send the foreman. An hour later, he hasn't reported in either."

"What about the cops?" Connor asked, before going to deposit the Deuce in the armory.

"They sent in two officers, and if you can guess what happened to them, you win the grand prize."

"I thought trolls lived under bridges?" Rocky asked, as everyone made their way to the armory to stock back up on ammo.

"Well that's the ironic part about this," Thom began with a dry cuckle. "The building being renovated connects the Gordon Center to the music hall. That connection is a bridge overlooking a river."

"Well looks like you were right Jimmy," Rocky said, trying to get a spiderweb out of his hair. "This is gonna be a long day."

"I really hate being right sometimes." I groaned, refilling my tac-vest with Uzi mags. "Do we need anything special like we did with the spiders?"

"Restock on your incendiary shells. We're gonna need 'em." Lucas said in that same barking tone he tended to use whenever a situation got serious.

"Flamethrower boss?" James asked. And I noticed with a slight feeling of foreboding, that there was a hopeful glint in his eyes.

"Bring it, but that means you're gonna insert at the river. I don't want that thing used indoors. Way too dangerous in close quarters."

"Are you gonna join us?" I asked Thom, restocking on incendiary shells for my Saiga. "From the sounds of it, we could use the help."

A rueful half-smile crossed Thom's face as he shook his head. "I can't. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to go, but somebody's gotta stay here and watch after you and your buddy's families. Don't worry, there'll be plenty more opportunities for me to shoot some uglies."

"We'll see you when we get back little brother." John said, cycling the action of his Mossberg action hero-style.

From where our compound is located, Onondaga Community College is about a 5 minute drive away. The way Lucas drives, it seemed more like a 2 minute drive. James, Rocky, Connor, and Kai were going to insert from the river. Lucas, Matt, and the Frenchie who I'll get to later would insert from the musical hall, while John and myself would go in from the Gordon Student Center.

"I hate trolls," John began, as we swept slowly through the lower floors of the student center. "Foul smelling, real powerful, and can turn nasty when somebody makes a crack about goats."

"You made a goat joke when you went after a trolls nest didn't you?" I scoffed lightly, as we searched a rather large office. We were moving with the speed of a glacier so we didn't miss anything, and did not get surprised in case we ran across our target/targets.

John chuckled peeking around a corner with his Mossberg leveled. The entire campus had been evacuated, the official story was that somebody had planted a bomb somewhere on campus. Gotta love the stuff the MCB can come up with. "Yeah, it was one of the first jobs I ever went on with MHI. We found where their nest was, a fight breaks out, one of the trolls charge at me. Well you saw how fast Alex moved when he went toe to toe with that vampire in Fulton right?"

"Yeah." I replied, as we exited the large office. "He kicked that things ass, right before Matt, Rock, and myself ended it."

"Well that's a hybrid for you," John replied, as we continued down the hall. "Faster and stronger than anything you've ever seen, or anything you're ever going to see in your career as a Hunter. Anyways, I get into a fist fight with this thing, and he's getting angrier and angrier because he can't hit me. All the while, I'm moving and striking like Muhamad Ali. Anyways the thing gets so pissed off, and I come out with: 'oh sorry, that get your goat'? Ohhhh damn did that ever piss him off."

I was using a wall for support by the end of John's story. My ribs hurt I was laughing so hard, and I had to remind myself that we had a job to do. "Well I'm no hybrid, so I think I'll leave the smart remarks to you and your dad on this job."

"You're alright Jimmi. Just remember to watch your corners, and above all else, even above not making any goat jokes. Don't use your katana. Trust me, from experience you don't want to cut an ar or leg off a troll."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said before we came up from the basement of the student center. The bridge that connected the Gordon building with the music hall was on the student center's first floor. We only cleared the lower floors, because we had to make sure the trolls weren't nesting there. "So can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." John replied, then added. "I meant ask, not fire your weapon."

"I knew what you meant. But I wanted to know what the 'deal' was that prevented Thom from going hunting with us. I mean he was with us when we went to Fort Bragg, so why couldn't he come with us when we went after the arachnies, and why can't he be with us now?"

"It's… A long story," John replied. "The short version is that Thom and Kai used to date for a time before you guys joined the team. The recently broke things off, for some reason really known only between the two of them. But unless there's a real big problem like say a big-ass zombie outbreak, the two of them don't go on the same jobs together."

"And I'm guessing Thom took the break-up kinda hard?" I asked.

"He took it better than I thought, but yeah he took it hard."

I couldn't help it, I gave a small snort of laughter, and instead of saying 'that's what she said' I went with: "Phrasing."

John laughed, and lightly shoved my left shoulder. I couldn't help it, I laughed too. But when it stopped, it was back to business. Back to doing what we came here to do.

"Alright, we move through the cafeteria, and into the bridge. And remember what I said earlier."

"Check corners," I began. "No smack talk, and no katana."

John nodded once. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

"You look ready." John replied, looking more like the soldier he used to be. "Alright let's move."

The two of us moved through the cafeteria, using a variation of the back-to-back method. John took the lead, while I covered his back. Halfway across the room we switched, I was taking point while John covered my back. We really weren't expecting the trolls to be in here of all places, but better to be safe rather than troll food. The two of us reached the other end of the cafeteria in a little over a minute, and from there it was a straight shot to the bridge that connected the two buildings.

" _Everyone check in."_ Lucas spoke over the com line.

"John here. Jimmi's with me. Studen't center's clear, no tangos spotted." John replied.

" _Fireball checking in."_ James' reported over the com line. " _Couple of bones down here, but nothing that looks human. Deer, fox, that sort of stuff. Might be their dumping ground."_

" _We think we might have found where their laying their heads."_ Lucas said over the line. " _John, Jimmi, Richard, converge on our position in the auditorium. James, Kai, Connor, stay along the banks of the river below. If things go bad we'll drive them to you."_

" _Copy."_

"Copy dad, alright let's move Jimmi."

I didn't need to be told twice. We moved across the new extention that connected the student center to the music hall and auditorium as quick as we could. Matt Lucas and the French Hunter were waiting for us on the other side of the doors that led to the bridge. Two minutes later, Rocky joined us from the opposite end of the hallway, looking pretty winded. Then again, he had just run up a pretty steep embankment with about 50 pounds worth of gear on. He made pretty good time for all the gear he had on, and how steep the terrain was.

"Spiders, trolls, could today get any crazier?" He panted, doubling over.

The French Hunter straightened Rocky up after a few seconds. "You constrict your airway when you're bent over like that. Stand up straight, and more air will go into your lungs."

"And we're going up against trolls," John said. "You have no idea how crazy it's about to get."

"Oh goddamnit," Rocky groaned. "I'm gonna need a drink before today is over."

"We'll stop at the liquor store when this job is over." Lucas replied. "God knows I could use a drink as well."

"Well job first, booze second." John began. "Where are they resting their heads dad?"

"This way." Lucas replied, and led us into the auditorium. We moved down past the rows of chairs, and took a left. That led us into another hallway, and we went down a set of stairs from there. And oh my god, the smell that hit us when we reached the bottom of the stepps. It was worse that the burning arachnies in the cave. Yeah I'd sooner take the burning spiders than whatever the hell these trolls smelled like.

"Matt, if you're gonna vomit hold it in." I said.

"I don't think I have anything left to throw up." Matt groaned, shaking his head. My guess was to hold down his stomach contents from coming back up. "Oh god how do you guys do this?"

"You get used to it." John replied, waving a hand in front of his nose. "My guess is that they're right through those doors. Let me handle it, but get your guns up."

The thought that John wasn't going to make a goat crack about goats crossed my mind, but was wiped from it the second the Eldest Morrison child knocked on the double doors in front of us. "Hello, my friends and I are representing the Huntsman Against Goat Abuse Foundation. Do you have a moment to talk?"

You know that scene from _The Mummy Returns_ where Brendan Frasier's character says 'these guys don't use doors'? And then 6 mummified warriors burst through the concrete surrounding the door? Yeah, same thing happened in the split-second after John made his goat crack. Apparently trolls don't use doors either. The damn things came through the friggin' walls, and oh damn they were pissed off.

"NOT MAKE BILLY GOAT JOKE!" One troll roared at John.

"Oh I'm sorry," John replied in a snarky tone. "Did you want us to goat-away?"

I'm not sure if I groaned internally or let it out, but the next thing I became aware of was that John had cocked back his right fist, and put his fist into the troll's abdomen. When he retracted it, there was a firing pin to a grenade hanging from his thumb. I think the troll knew what John had done, a split-second before the presurized napalm burned the troll from the inside out.

Okay pro tip time once again: If a hybrid who has the last name of Morrison ever A, decides to smack talk you, accept it. And B, if you ever get into a fist fight with said Morrison hybrid, you're probably going to die, and if you don't, you _will_ get your ass utterly handed to you.

To me, it really didn't seem that all of us were needed. Lucas and John beat the snot out of the trolls in a matter of seconds with their _bare hands_. Sure the two had been former soldiers, but the added fact that they were vampire/werewolf hybrids was the key advantage in this situation. What they did to those trolls was over in a matter of seconds, they moved so fast I could barely register what the two had done, but when it was over Lucas and John were standing over five mangled and twisted trolls.

"Are they dead?" I asked completely stunned. Yeah sure I had seen Alex in action against a vampire, and he had made fighting those things incredibly easy when in reality, if anyone else other than another vampire had attempted that, there wouldn't be much of anything left of them. But still seeing (if only barely) what father and eldest son had just accomplished with just their bare hands, made me wonder once again why all of us were needed, if those two were able to twist these things into supernatural pretzels. I mean hell, the rest of us hadn't even gotten a shot off.

"Huh, let's check." John kicked one of the twisted trolls in the head, and its head snapped to the right with a nasty cracking sound. "Nah, it's neck might be snapped, but it'll come back from that."

"So twisting these things into pretzels, and breaking one of their necks wasn't enough?" Matt asked, somewhere between shock and laughter. "What's it take to kill one of these sons of bitches."

"I think that's why we brought the incendiary shells and grenades." Rocky replied in the same half-shocked half-laughing tone that Matt spoke in. "But why waste the shells, we can use the grenades and make a makeshift funeral pyre. But we shouldn't do it in here, we'll set the whole building on fire."

"I've got a better idea," Lucas said. "We've got a flamethrower, so why not use it?"

John and Lucas dragged the trolls outside, Lucas called for Kai, Connor and James to join us, and by the time that the two Morrisons had tossed the last troll into a large pile. James was more than happy to use the flamethrower we had brought, and now I better understand that line from _Apocalypse Now_. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

"Notify the MCB," Lucas said, after the flamethrower ran out of juice. "Time to pack up, hit the liquor store and RTB. Our job's done here."

Half an hour and several full bottles of various alcohols later (oh should have mentioned that we had taken off our armor and weapons before entering the liquor store), we arrived back at the compound.

The Frenchman who we had encountered in the arachnie nest was an attractive looking man (yes I admit that as a straight man that this guy was attractive) if I had to guess in his late 20's or very early 30's. His name was Rennie Benoit, his facial features despite his apparent age were youthful. Rennie's hair was a dark brown, but he had it cut to SAS military standards. Rennie had been former SAS. Born in Paris, but raised in London by his father. He and his unit were attacked by a powerful vampire while running a search and rescue op. Their asses had been saved by the British Hunter organizations aptly named the Van Helsing Organization. Rennie had joined on the spot.

As for what Rennie was doing in Portland Maine? Officially he was on vacation there. He was going to meet his little sister Framboise who was, and I cannot make this up, Matt's girlfriend. Alright, if I'm being honest Framboise wasn't really his girlfriend. The two just slept together for three years. I swear the stuff those two did, I can never get the sounds out of my mind. But the two really did care about one another, they had just agreed to not put labels on their relationship, but had kept in regular contact during our training down in Cazador.

Getting back on topic, Rennie had a contact in US customs who had gotten his gear around baggage check when his plane landed. Must have been a real reliable contact given how heavily armed and armored Rennie was. He had been in Portland for about five hours when Framboise had called him, saying that she was ill, and therefore was unable to join him in Portland. Rennie while there to spend time with his sister, was also keeping his ear to the ground for any sighting or rumor of the supernatural. Which is how he heard about the situation unfolding involving the arachnie and the later to be discovered Jouroguomo.

Oh and speaking of said Jouroguomo… I was once again back in our compound's armory. I was organizing my gear once again, because I had no idea what to do about my backup baby Sig and my twin peacemakers that my grandpa Woods had left me. I was telling Tony and Jillian about the last two jobs we had just completed. I was multi-tasking in giving my half-siblings a blow-by-blow analysis of everything had happened, while thinking what I was going to do with those three separate sidearms. And that's when Matt ran into the armory, and he did not look happy. No he looked both scared and really really pissed off.

"Locke just called Lucas," He said as he practically slammed into his weapons locker. "That Jouroguomo bitch's car was spotted three blocks away from Framboise's apartment!"

Now I wasn't particularly all that fond of Framboise, only because she and Matt kept me awake half the night whenever she stayed at our apartment. But Matt was over the moon in love with her, and he was my best friend. And I'd take a bullet for my best friend, so that made saving Framboise the highest priority at that moment. I grabbed my CQC vest, my Uzi, and stuffed my baby Sig into the pocket of the cargo pants I was wearing. I grabbed the keys to my Mustang, and was hot on Matt's heels as he ran to the garage.

The sun had set a couple of hours ago, but I had driven Matt to Framboise's apartment so many times when his Crown Vic was in the shop, that I knew how to get there blindfolded. Now I said it before, Matt was over the moon in love with this woman, therefore he'd do anything for her. If that meant A lying about what he was really doing now, in order to keep her from getting executed by the MCB. And B breaking every speed limit in upstate New York in order to prevent her from potential liquification by a nasty supernatural being, yeah he'll do it in half a heartbeat. Now that whole thing about breaking every speed limit in upstate New York? Oh yeah he was doing just that, but my Mustang was much faster than his Crown Vic, therefore I got to Framboise's place first.

Her car, a small dark blue Mini Cooper was parked in one of the spaces her apartment complex offered. And there was another vehicle I didn't recognise that was hastily parked up on the curb. I had my baby Sig drawn, as I quickly made my way over to the vehicle."Rhode Island license plate, broken driver side window … shit and blood."

Matt's Vic pulled up a second later, and he vaulted out of his car without killing the engine. "Let's get in there Jimmi!"

"She's your girl man, you go in first." I replied. My heart was thudding against my ribcage, and adrenaline was flooding my veins as we ran past the complex's bashed in front door. Then we heard something we really hoped we wouldn't hear. A high-pitched horror movie-esque scream. Framboise. We hauled ass up three flights of stairs, and past the destroyed door to Framboise's apartment.

I don't even remember opening up on the Jouroguomo, but nine rounds from my baby Sig, and nine from Matt's Tac 45 for a total of eighteen rounds of .45 silver Pow'rball ammo later, the bitch's half-human half-spider corpse was sprawled out in Framboise's living room right in front of the terrified French woman.

"Think she's dead?" I asked, chancing a glance at Matt.

"Let's make-fucking-sure." He replied icily, and I knew despite how pissed he was, exactly what he was thinking. We quickly crossed to the presumed dead Jouroguomo, and aimed at the back of its head.

" _And shepards we shall be."_

" _For thee my Lord, for thee."_

" _Power hath flown from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command."_

" _And so we shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls will it ever be."_

" _In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti."_

Two trigger pulls a split-second later, the Jouroguomo that had gotten away from us in Portland, and had just now attempted to kill Framboise was very much dead.


	9. Chapter 9

For a while, all Framboise could do was stare at the two of us in shock. But honestly who could blame her? A half human half spider just splintered the door to her apartment, and had attempted to kill her, only for her … For lack of a better term, boyfriend and his best friend to come in afterwards, and gun down the monster who had just attempted to kill her.

"Hey, we should call the team. Let them know the one that got away, just got taken out." I said, as the expended 10 round magazine fell to the floor of Framboise's apartment with a dull thunk. I fished another out of the small ammo pouches I had clipped onto my belt, and a moment later the slider came forward, chambering the first round in the 10 round mag.

"Yeah you're right," Matt said reloading his Tac 45. "We gotta let them know-" We turned our guns, and aimed at the now open (if you could even call it that now) doorway, while at the same time keeping the Jouroguomo's corpse hidden from sight. The sound of heavy footfalls reached our ears, and with what had just happened the two of us weren't taking any chances. Hammers were cocked back, and fingers were on triggers. It would only take 4.75lbs of pressure to end anything hostile that came through that doorway.

The problem was, what came into that doorway wasn't supernatural, but human. A woman in her late 30's who practically screamed 'soccer mom'. "What the hell is going on here!?"

"You know, most people don't run towards the sound of gunfire." I remarked snarkily, still keeping my Sig leveled.

"Frenchie, what the hell did I tell you about keeping the goddamn noise down." Soccer mom growled. "That's it, I'm calling the cops."

"Good luck with that," Matt replied in an equally snarky tone, before digging into his pocket and pulling out his wallet, which was a replica of credentials most Federal Agents keep. Complete with a badge and everything. I can't really mock him though, I have the same wallet, which really came in handy during this situation. "Federal Agents ma'am. Agent Eastwood, this is my partner Agent Walker. We're going to have to ask you to leave now ma'am. This area is now a crime scene."

The sight of a set of fake credentials, which looked real from the distance that separated us and soccer mom, now combined with two very real sidearms that were loaded and ready to rock and roll, was enough to make her back off. Although that attitude of hers still persisted. "I'm still calling the cops."

Soccer mom stalked off, and Matt holstered his Tack 45 before turning his attention back to Framboise. Only to run into a vicious slap in the face by the French woman, who began to yell at him in rapid French. Since I took Spanish in High School (which was a bit of a joke), I couldn't understand a word she was saying.

I wanted to take myself out of that situation, and possible argument, I stepped outside, past the splinters of what remained of the front door. I dug my phone out of one of the pockets in my cargo pants, and dialed Pat's number. While he didn't sound too happy about us going out by ourselves with no backup, our team leader completely understood where Matt was coming from, and that he'd be there soon.

That was right about the time I noticed soccer mom at the far end of the hallway on her phone, and from her body language, she looked like she was trying to stay out of sight. And my suspicions were confirmed when she tried to duck out of sight when she caught me looking at her. Something odd was going on here. My right hand closed around my smaller Sig, which I hadn't bothered to safety. Whatever was going on with her, I didn't like it at all. Not one bit.

Feeling like Pat couldn't get here soon enough, I ducked back into Framboise's apartment, where the argument between the two seemed to have quelled. Or rather Framboise had stopped screaming at Matt in very angry French. "Guys I have a bad feeling about that woman, I think we should get out of here."

"The soccer mom?" Matt asked, still massaging the spot where Framboise had slapped him. Girl can pack one hell of a right hook. "Why what's going on?"

"I don't know, but I saw her when I called Pat. It looked like she was trying to stay out of sight, and she all but jumped back into her apartment when she saw me looking at her."

"Framboise, how long has that woman been living here?" Matt asked, turning his attention back to her.

"I think eight months, give or take a few weeks." She replied, then added as if feeling she was missing something. "What is going on Matthew?"

"It is a very long story, which we can explain after we get you out of here." Matt said, becoming serious as we both know what was coming. "But we need to go now."

"Uh too late." I said looking out of Framboise's balcony window. "Black SUVs not ours on the street. Annnd we got guys with AK's coming in."

"And we have pistols." Matt said before swearing in French. "We can't fight these guys off with just forty five caliber pistols."

The sound of heavy footfalls coming up the stairs seriously limited our options. We could fight our way to the parking lot. Not an option seeing as how we'd get killed if we did. We only had our tac vests, and not our armor. Or we could try and sneak out via climbing down the balconies, which was clearly the better option.

We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we had to act real fast. Framboise went outside first, then Matt, and I was the last one on that balcony. I shut the sliding glass door, before Matt manuvered his way over the rail of the balcony, before carefully dropping to the second.

"Alright Framboise you're next. I've got you covered." I said, trying to both keep her covered, and stay hidden from sight at the same time. It took her longer to get down to the lower balcony, as she was terrified given the situation. Honestly I couldn't blame her. Once she was down safely, it was my turn. But by that time, those guys with AKs which I could only assume were part of the angry werewolf pack after Matt and myself had come running into Framboise's apartment. There wasn't much cover on this balcony, but luckily for me the sun had set hours ago, so I was partially concealed in shadow like some sort of anime assassin. But there was no time to revel in that. I came here to help Matt rescue Framboise from a Jouroguomo, not get killed on a semi-darkened apartment balcony by what could only be the large pack of werewolves that wanted us dead. So as quick as I could, I manuvered down from Framboise's balcony, and dropped down onto the second. From there all we had to do was vault over the small iron railing, and we were in the parking lot.

"Jimmy, over here." Matt said keeping his voice low. He had opened the trunk of one of the SUVs, which I saw were loaded with a large assortment of weapons and ammo. These guys really were here to kill us judging from all the hardware. "We have enough here to go back in and take those sons of bitches out... Or we could use this." Matt pulled a case of C4 out of the open trunk. My guess was that after they killed us, they were going to use the C4 to get rid of the evidence.

"Matthew what is all this?" Framboise asked hysterical. "What the hell is going on? Tell me right now!"

"Alright, about eight months ago Jimmi and I got attacked by werewolves. We killed all of them without getting a scratch, but apparently we'd pissed off someone higher in the pack those wolves belonged to. And now they're trying to kill us to avenge one of the five wolves we killed."

"And that woman." I added, pointing back to the apartment complex. "The soccer mom, she called and told them where we were. She's with them… You said she moved in eight months ago. They were keeping tabs on us, they know our scents, and no offense Framboise, you probably have Matt's scent all over you."

"What do you mean by…?" Framoise's eyes widened a moment later, when she finally understood what I meant.

"Alright," Matt started. "We got enough firepower here to take those wolves out. I say we go back in there."

"But it's still six versus two," I replied, peeking around the back of the large SUV. "We're outnumbered three to one, and these guns the wolves have aren't loaded with silver rounds. Either we gotta wait until the team gets here, or fall back."

"If we wait for the team, we'll risk innocent civilians getting killed," Matt countered. "If we pull back, they'll definately get killed. Look Pat might be miffed at us, but he said that we'd be fucked with him if we ended up killing civilians, and if we pulled back now it's just as bad as us shooting the innocent people in that building ourselves."

This long day had just gotten longer. "Goddamnit, I hate it when you're right. But the problem is, we only have pistols. I left the Uzi in my car."

"Alright, I'll cover you but take Framboise with you. I don't want her caught up in the firefight."

After checking to see that nobody was looking out their windows, Framboise and I moved as quick as we could to where Matt and I had parked. While Framboise took cover in Matt's Crown Vic, I grabbed my Uzi from where it had fallen on the floor of the passenger side seat, as a thought ran through my mind. Why did we not hear sirens? 10 overlapping gunshots fired in this neighborhood, police would be here in less than 3 minutes. Did the wolves have someone in the police department, or had someone from the team already called to run interference?

I shook my head to clear those thoughts. I couldn't think about that right now, right now we had six or possibly more heavily armed and extremely dangerous werewolves to deal with. But we still had no idea on how the two of us were going to deal with said aforementioned heavily armed werewolves.

"Pat, seriously hurry it up." I said to myself, and I was almost immediatly blinded by several sets of high-beam headlights. I ducked behind the passenger side door, and leveled my Uzi. If those were more wolves, they were going to be in for a nasty shock. Luckily for me, some deity must be looking out for me, Pat, Alex, Clare, Terry Creed, and Kai came out looking ready for a fight.

"You alright rookie?" Creed asked stepping around the passenger door. I noted that he rocked a full-sized SCAR-H SOPMOD, and a twin set of Glock 21 gen 4's. You know, I heard Alex once describe Creed as looking like Jason Bly from _Burn Notice_. That's not entirely accurate. He honestly looked more like Rick Flagg from the new _Suicide Squad_ film.

"Yeah, I'm good." I replied, as he helped me to my feet. "Man am I glad to see you guys."

"What's the situation Jimmi?" Pat asked, racking back the charging handle of his M4.

"Six plus wolves inside, unknown number of civilians inside as well." I replied, as my grip tightened around my Uzi. "It's only a matter of time before they get impatient and start shooting up the place."

Pat nodded. "Alright, we need to get in there now before-" Pat got cut off, and everyone turned their weapons towards the apartment complex when the sound of gunfire came from somewhere inside. "Before _that_ happens! Fuck, let's get in there now!"

We hit the building hard and fast. Matt who had been given a K-10 Vector subgun made by KRISS as his temporary replacement, and myself were on point. Two wolves were on the second floor landing looking like they were about to kick a door down. Several bursts of surppressed gunfire took care of them, and for good measure to make sure they stayed down, we put several more silver .45 rounds into their skulls.

Pat, Alex, and Clare swept through the second landing, while Matt, Kai Creed, and myself went up to the third landing. If I thought they would be waiting for us, I thought wrong. Or at least I did until we got to soccer mom's apartment. The door was split in half, and soccer mom was bleeding into her apartments shag carpeting. But there was no time to focus on checking on weather she was alive or not.

When we entered soccer mom's apartment, Matt and me went in first, Creed and Kai covered our six. And right then shit got crazy. Granted shit had gotten crazy earlier, but shit just went nuts when we entered soccer mom's place. Creed entered the apartment followed by Kai, and something slammed into her. We spun about and leveled our weapons at what turned out to be this 6 foot 8 mountain of a man, who currently had his large beefy hands wrapped about Kai's throat.

I leveled my Uzi at his head, and my finger curled around my subgun's trigger, but before I could drop him, Kai's hands came down hard on this guy's forearms causing him to let go of her throat. She followed up with a left hook, and then a right palm strike which staggered her assailant. Kai tried to sweep the guy's legs, but he had either recovered, or was way too big for Kai's 5 foot 8 frame to take down with a sweep kick. The mountain just smiled at her with this vicious predatory grin that basically said: 'You done fucked up sweetheart'.

And that was when my right fist made contact with this guy's nose. I heard and felt it break under my fist, as the mountain staggered back, with both hands now covering his bleeding nose. It doesn't matter how big you are, a broken nose is a broken nose, and it hurts like hell. I hit him in the same place again, granted that both times I hit him, I had to jump to better hit my target kinda like Roman Reigns' Superman Punch. The second time I hit the guy, I landed in a crouch, and felt someone use my back as a sort of springboard. I heard the sound of a powerful strike landing, and the mountain grunting in pain, right before he hit the floor. Not taking any chances, I fished my baby Sig from my pocket and put two silver rounds into this guy's forehead.

"Well that was fun." I said, nodding in approval, right before I felt a hand grab my tac-vest and pull me back. I heard several more silenced gunshots sound from overhead. When I looked up, Kai was … well for lack of a better term crouched over me. One of her silenced Tac-45's was drawn, and I actually saw one of the shell casings leave the ejection slide. I turned my attention towards the direction of where Kai's sidearm was aimed, and saw a fourth wolf slumped against the opposite wall. There was a trail of blood leading down to where his body was, and one more silenced chirp later, the contents of that wolf's brains splattered the wall.

"Keep doing this, and I might start to think you like me." I said with some slight cheek before Kai helped me to my feet.

"I notice that you only seem to have some bravado once the danger has passed." Kai replied matching my cheeky tone.

If I was going to reply to that, I never got the chance. The fifth and sixth wolves came out from somewhere in soccer mom's apartment. Almost as if on instinct (of course with all that training in Cazador it damn well might have been instinct) I brought up my baby Sig, and put three more rounds each into them. They fell back as my Sig's slide came back, as the magazine was expended. "Weird, I could have sworn I had four more rounds in this magazine."

"Who are you Archer?" Matt scoffed, handing me back my Uzi, after I had reloaded my baby Sig.

"Is that all of 'em rookies?" Creed asked, lowering his SCAR.

"Should be, I saw six enter, but their could be more." I replied right before Pat stepped into the splintered doorway.

"It's clear. No sign of anymore hostiles." He said lightning up another cigarette. "Counting that … Jouroguomo you called it Kai?" Kai nodded in response. "That makes it seven hostile contacts down. But I still have a few questions rookies. For starters, who the hell is the freaked out girl in your car Matt? And did you guys go Boondock Saints on that Jouroguomo in the other apartment?"

"Her name is Framboise Benoit." Matt began. "For all intents and puurposes boss, she's my girlfriend. And yeah we did. We wanted to make sure she … it was dead. We didn't end up hitting anyone with those last two shots did we?"

Pat Shook his head, expelling smoke from his mouth. "Nah you're good, but seriously if you guys are going to do that, at least let me be there for it."

"We'll try boss, but no promises." Matt replied.

"Right, I called Locke already, Cops and MCB are on their way. Matt, check your girlfriend into a hotel until she can come back here."

"Uh boss," I spoke up. "That might not be the best idea."

"What do you mean Jimmi?" Pat asked before taking a long drag on his cigarette.

"I think the wolves have our scent. Mine and Matt's." I replied. "The woman laying at your feet I think is an informant for these wolves. Framboise said that she had moved in about eight months ago. _Eight months ago_ boss."

"Which is right around the time you two incurred the wrath of the new alpha." Pat replied, gesturing to the two of us with his cigarette between the index and middle fingers of his right hand. "But why here, and why the hell is she," he pointed to soccer mom's corpse, "all riddled with bullets?"

"Well Framboise practically reeks of Matt's scent, as the two did nothing but sleep with each other for the past four years." I said, continuing my explenation. "As for soccor mom here, my guess was that when the wolves couldn't find us, they shot her out of frustration."

"And that's right when we showed up." Pat replied, finishing his cigarette. "Alright, get your girlfriend back in here Matt, have her grab some of her clothes. She can room with you back at the compound."

"Mom and dad are gonna love this." Matt said sarcastically, as we exited the apartment about 20 minutes later carrying armfuls of Framboise's clothes.

"That my friend is your problem." I replied, setting the clothes in the back seats of Matt's crown vic. "I on the other hand need am taking a shower then going to Ihop."

"Dude, it's almost midnight."

"Yeah, so what? They're open twenty four hours, and i really want some pancakes." I replied, and we both started laughing.


	10. Chapter 10

About two weeks after we had dealt with the Jouroguomo and the six werewolves that had stormed into Framboise's apartment, I found myself in the Adirondack mountain range. Why were we up there you ask? Well the locals had been plagued by a '"bear attack," but bears leave evidence of their attacks. Hands, legs, torsos, something that can be identified. Fortunately, one of the officers up there wasn't stupid, and had made a call. That call was to Earl Harbinger down in Cazador, who had relayed the message to us. So that's why Terry Creed had taken Matt, Rocky, Thom, Isabelle, and myself up to the Adirondacks.

It was about 4 in the afternoon, and raining like God had decided to wash away all of humanity like he did in the tale of Noah's Arc by the time we had arrived. The officer that had called Earl Harbinger was waiting for us outside his station. The officer had a bomber jacket similar to Earl's over his uniform, and the wide brimmed officer hat one normally sees in outer county's was due to the rain, completely soaked He like most people who live in central and upstate New York had that weathered look of being used to the bad weather, but still hating it with a passion.

"Pat Martin?" The officer asked Creed as he stepped out of the drivers side of one of the two SUV's that we had driven up.

"No sir, Terry Creed. Temporary team lead." Creed replied, as the rest of us stepped out of the SUV's.

"Simon Baird." The officer replied, shaking Creed's hand. I learned later that everyone around here called him The Bear or simply Bear. "I'm the Sheriff in this county, and obviously the one who called your boss who directed me to your team lead."

"Which leads me to my next question," Creed began adjusting the cap on his head. "How do you know Harbinger?"

Sheriff Baird reached into his jacket and pulled out a well worn business card, which I recognised as the same business card that Matt and I had been given when Alex and clare had recruited us. "This isn't the first werewolf I've dealt with. Earl tried recruiting me a few years back, but I enjoyed being an officer of the law too much at the time, and still do. Still though, it's been years since anything like this has happened up here. But let's not stand around in the rain freezing our nuts off, come on inside and I'll explain."

Sheriff Baird led us into the station, and into a small briefing/conference room. There were maps of the area, and photos of the multiple crime scenes that made horror movies look tame. In every photo, there was blood everywhere, but no body parts, or human remains at all except all that blood.

"These are bad." I said, looking at several of the crime scene photos, and holding back a shudder at one in particular. I was looking at a photo of a tent that was ripped to shreds, and four separate sleeping bags. Two of which were kid-sized. This wolf had targeted families.

"It gets worse." Sheriff Baird said setting three mangled gold police badges onto the table in the center of the room. "I lost three lieutenants and a deputy to this damn wolf. I lost lieutenant Williams and deputy Shavers two months ago. Last month it was lieutenant Grissom, and it was yesterday that I lost my third but best lieutenant in Wilkins."

"So let me get this straight," Isabelle frowned, and crossed her arms. "You had a run in with a werewolf in the past, so therefore you know the signs of a werewolf attack. However, you don't call us right away, and instead send your own men to the scenes, and to their subsequent deaths."

Baird's hand gripped one of the mangled badges, so that his knuckles were white. "I have the balls to admit that I fucked up. But there was a small underlying circumstance in this FUBAR situation."

"And that would be what?" Isabelle asked in a disgusted tone, looking like she might punch Sheriff Baird.

"A hunting company came through last week asking about the recent 'attacks'." Baird replied.

"Another hunting company?" Creed asked, placing his soaked cap back on his head after wringing the water out of it. "What did they call themselves?"

"Paranormal Tactical or something along those lines." Baird replied, causing both Creed and Isabelle to scoff.

"You accepted the help of those ammetures?" Creed asked, shaking his head.

"They offered to help, and I was in no position to refuse. I'd already lost two lieutenants and a deputy by that point, not to mention that this werewolf has claimed fifteen victims in two months." Baird replied.

"Alright, now you know not to accept help from dime-a-dozen companies like Paranormal Tactical. You want a solution to your problem, you call our company first, because we'll save you a lot of stress, paperwork, and manpower. Oh and not to mention, we'll actually get the job done." I gotta hand it to Creed, he's a pretty good speaker.

"Alright Mr. Creed, I see your point," Baird began. "Now would you please take care of my problem before anymore innocent people get brutalized by this werewolf?"

"Gladly," Sheriff Baird said before pointing at the map of the county. "There are a couple camps around Sarnac Lake. That's where all the attacks happened. My best guess is he's holed up in this area here. It's real thick forest, where the choppers can't see."

"Perfect." Creed scoffed.

"Oh it get's better. Ever see the Blair Witch Project?"

"Aw fuck." Rocky groaned.

"Let me guess," Creed began. "Run down creepy-ass cabin right in the center of that thick forest?"

"And we have a winner." Baird said. "Locals won't go near it, and warn everybody camping out there to stay away from it as well. If that werewolf is anywhere in those woods, dollars to doughnuts it's hiding out in that cabin in between transformations and moon cycles."

"Can we set that cabin on fire once we're finished?" I asked, pushing away the crime scene photos. I honestly couldn't stand looking at them anymore, my stomach was churning so bad.

"If you have explosives, I'd prefer you demolish that fucking place." Baird replied.

"That we can do." Creed replied.

"I'll drive you out there." Baird said, in a resigned tone. I couldn't tell if he was more against going out to the site of the wolf attacks, or going back out in the rain. But hey, at least it wasn't the snow.

Okay you know what? I take that back. The rain sucked just as bad. Especially if you consider where we were. A mountain range in northern New York, we were going into a forest where the damn rain comes down even harder for some reason, oh not to mention that it was late September, and the weather begins fluctuating something crazy during the transition months from summer to fall and finally winter. So this particular day was wet, and freezing. Oh and if I hadn't mentioned it before, the rain was coming down like God had decided to flood the entire world once again.

Nobody was happy as we got our armor on, and our gear assembled. We were all trying to use the hatch-back of the SUVs to keep ourselves dry. Yeah, didn't really work out too well. I was in the process of securing one of my tac-vests, when Creed stopped me.

"Switch to your marksman vest, and bring out your new toy. It's time to break that beauty in."

What Creed had meant by that, was my new REPR.

Now to further continue telling this story, I have to go back and tell you another story first, so that you can fully understand just how I came to own the beautiful .308 rifle that is my new REPR.

So it happens a few days after Matt and Mine's little stunt at Framboise's apartment. Pat was miffed yea, but more miffed that the two of us had went off on our own without waiting for the team to assemble their gear. But to that end, if we hadn't rushed off like we did, Framboise would have been liquified. But nobody civilian-wise had gotten hurt, and the only casualties were the six werewolves, and the Jouroguomo that had evaded us in Portland.

And to that end, I had tried reading up on what those things were, and what Kai had told us back in Portland was exactly what every site I had gone to had said. For a near extinct species of monster, they weren't as durable as oh say a vampire. I mean the one Matt and I had killed had taken ten rounds from a .45 caliber handgun. Oh wait, no I'm wrong, it took twenty. But still these things aren't one of the most durable of supernatural creatures out there.

But anyways, I was where I usually was in the compound. If you guessed it was the armory, than you win the grand prize. I wasn't doing anything special this time, just refilling my CQC tac-vest with more Uzi mags. Anyways, I became aware that I wasn't the only one in the compound's armory. And that's how I ended up aiming my baby Sig at Riza.

"Easy kid, she's with us." Earl Harbinger's voice came from behind the werewolf, before the companies acting director stepped into the armory followed by the rest of his team.

I took my finger off the trigger, but didn't lower my Sig. I was weighing the options of shooting Riza right here and now. Might have been Earl Harbinger's say so. And despite her being some sort of mole in her pack, she was to my knowledge at that point still part of the pack that was gunning for me and Matt. And if I was not mistaken, she was still on the Puff list. So, werewolf and potential mole for her pack, who's new alpha wanted us dead, and was possibly not on the Puff exemption list. So she had to go.

"Kid, I know what you're thinking." Harbinger said, placing one of his hands on my baby Sig. The guy was strong, even for an act as simple (and dangerous) as lowering someone's sidearm. "Everyone in Cazador wanted to shoot her when we brought her back. But her info is good, and I got some information for Martin. Now where is your team lead?"

"Rec room." I replied, flicking the safety on my baby Sig back on. "I think there's a Jets game on."

"Ten says they're getting destroyed." Owen said scoffing.

"They're playing the Patriots," I replied in a half dry, half laughing tone. "Of course they're getting destroyed. So whatever info you have is sure to put him in a better mood than the results of that game."

"Kid needs to pick a better team." Earl lit a cigarette, before he and the majority of his team filed out of the armory. Milo Anderson was the only one on Earl's team who stayed in the armory.

"Not as big as the one I've got in Cazador, but you guys still have a good sized place to work." Milo said stretching out, like he was about to make himself at home.

"You're the gunsmith for your team?" I asked, placing my tac-vest back into my locker.

"For the whole company kid." Milo replied. "I made Owen's Abomination."

"Abomination?" I asked, turning my head towards his direction.

"That Seiga he always has with him." Milo replied, and there was both adoration in his voice and in his tone. The guy obviously takes pride in his work. "I did another custom shotgun for a team down in Scranton. Warhammer."

"You mean an AR-15 that's been converted to fire 12 gage shells?" I asked in amazement. I'd heard of the Warhammer, but had never seen one up close, let alone gotten the chance to fire one.

"Well look who knows their weapons." Milo said, sitting in front of the multiple workbenches we have in our armory. "Yeah, I did a little tinkering with this particular one. The big one was that I added a flamethrower onto the under barrel."

I lost my footing, and stumbled forward a little bit. "A flamethrower? You added a flamethrower to a Warhammer?"

"Yep. People call me an evil genius." He said examining a couple weapon parts someone had left scattered on the workbench.

"Well they're right about that." I said reaching into my locker and pulling out my Uzi. "It took my dad, my friends dad, and myself to convert this baby to not mangle forty five ammo."

Milo looked at my Uzi like it was an old friend he hadn't seen in a very long time. "I haven't seen one of these in a long time. Not since Iron Hand Chad."

"Who is that?" I asked, as I handed Milo my Uzi.

"His real name, which he hated was Oliver Chadwick Gardenier. Everyone called him Chad or Iron Hand. He was one hell of a hunter, and Chad was the forerunner of what MHI calls the Iron Hand Uzi like the one you have here."

"I really thought that I had something special with that." I said feeling disappointment at the fact that my Uzi wasn't all that special.

"You do kid." Milo reassured. "Not a lot of people since Chad have used the Uzi because of what it does to forty five ammo. Plus Chad never left any plans on how to successfully convert the Uzi. I tried a couple times, but it never really was the same product Chad had. Trust me kid, when I say that there hasn't been an Iron Hand Uzi like this since Irond Hand was with us, then believe me, you have something special."

"You're referring to Chad in the past-tense." I said, wondering at the same time I spoke it. "Did something happen to him, in that he's no longer with the company?"

Milo sighed, and set my Uzi down on the workbench. "The short version is that his name is on one of the silver plaques in the main compound."

"Shit, I'm sorry about that."

Milo waved it off. "It's fine kid. Actually, you mind if I hold onto this for a little bit? I wanna see what makes this thing tick."

"Sure, just make sure I get it back." I replied. I actually felt a little proud of myself, sure I wasn't the first to come up with what Milo had called the Iron Hand Uzi, but I had helped it make a comeback. "You want details, talk to my dad or Mr. Reese. Oh and If you do decide to produce these things to the rest of the company, John Morrison and Kai Leng both want one."

"I knew I would find you here." Kai said from somewhere behind me.

"Oh god damnit!" My fists hit the workbench, as Milo laughed his ass off. "Gotta put a bell on you or something!"

"That's twice I've gotten you." Kai laughed.

"Yeah, one more and you win a prize." I laughed weakly. "Okay so what brings you down here, other than scaring the crap out of me?"

"Just telling you that Alex wants you to get your armor on. We're going back to Fulton, and that vampire nest."

I felt a chill go down my spine, as I turned to look at her. "Why are we going back there?"

"Alex is following up on a hunch." Kai explained. "He says that when we were there, we did not end up finding its coffin."

And that's when things clicked for me. "Oh shit, is this a team priority?"

Ten minutes later, I'm sitting in the passenger seat of one of our teams large SUVs, with my AR-15 in my lap. I'd purchased a Trijicon Blackout 300 Acog scope. Kai was driving, Rocky, Matt and Creed were in the back. And I have no idea why, but some crazy-ass death metal was blaring out of the vehicle's speakers. Apparently she was real into death metal, and if you gave her the name of any song off of any album in existence, she could recite the lyrics to it word for word. Owen had once joked about introducing her to someone named Skippy. My guess was whoever this person was, he was another death metal fan.

"So what's the deal here?" I asked, turning to face Creed. "Is it something along the lines of driver chooses the music, and passengers shut their cake-holes?"

"Pretty much rookie." Creed replied, tugging his cap down over his face. "Just relax, and let the heavy drum beats soothe you."

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew someone was shaking me awake. "Wake up kid, we're here." I registered Terry Creed's slight accent. Maybe Tennessee, or somewhere around there, but I had just woken up, correction been woken up, and my brain wasn't in any state to be putting things together.

"Anybody got any coffee?" I asked, after shaking my head.

"Not even the instant stuff." Creed replied, before opening the rear passenger door of the SUV we were piled into.

"Well potential vampire first, coffee run later." I said grabbing my AR-15, and exiting the SUV. We were back in front of that condemned office building that was once used as a base for a satanic cult, and a vampire nest. And we were going back in there. Hey, I told you that my life was weird.

The MCB had already beaten us here along with the local cops and state troopers. This was certainly going to draw a crowd, and it made me wonder what the MCB was going to use as a cover story for this situation. Well whatever it was, I'd let Earl and Pat talk it out with Locke, or whoever Locke had sent in his place in case he couldn't make it.

"You sure going in with that thing is the best idea?" Matt asked nodding at my AR-15, as he exited the SUV.

"Milo's back at the compound kinda drooling over my Uzi," I replied, and rotating my rifle 45 degrees. There was a small RMR reflex sight on a 45 degree angle on my ACOG scope, just in case whatever I went up against decided to get up close and personal. "Besides, I figured I'd have to break this rifle in sooner or later."

"Well what's your take on all this?" He asked looking back at the building we had cleared just a few nights ago, as Rocky exited the vehicle.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, which was in my dad's opinion in need of a trim. You see if I don't cut my hair when it starts getting unruly, it grows out. And I don't mean it grows towards the ground, no it grows straight back and gets curly. And I hadn't cut my hair in 8 months. But I'm getting off topic.

"Look, we cleared that building bottom to top. There are only three levels, and nobody found any coffin." I began. "That's the pessimistic view of looking at things. But the way we entered a couple nights ago? That entrance might have had sewer access. They thrive where there's no sun."

"That's a good thought." Rocky said. "I mean those wights, and that other vampire could have come up to have a little fun. Lucky we got there when we did. No telling how much damage they would have caused if they loosed themselves on the town. Plus there's the fact we never did a follow-up, because those wolves attacked right after we offed that vampire."

"So if this theory is correct, we're all gonna need a serious shower once this is over." Matt groaned.

It was right about that time, that a woman with slightly curly brown and slightly greying hair in a casual light blue business suit stepped past the heavy police and MCB blockade, and headed straight for me. "James? James is that you?"

Shit, it was my mom. The last time I'd seen my mom, I mean really seen my mom was when I had found out my grandpa Woods had left me his house and car. Yeah, that hadn't been the best conversation in the world. "Hi mom."

"James, what are you doing here? And what the hell is going on?" She asked, as I waved away an officer that had come to tell her she had to leave the area.

"She's okay," I told the officer who backed off, before turning my attention back to my mom, trying to keep my tone even. "And it's a long story. The short version is, I'm a civilian contractor, there are some very bad people holed up either in here," I jerked my head towards the ruined office building, "and we need to go in there and take care of them."

My mom sighed in resignation, and pinched the bridge of her nose between her left thumb and index finger. "I really should have seen that coming. Does your father know about," she gestured to all of the gear I had on, "all of this?"

"Yeah he knows. And he was pissed." I replied.

"Well of course he'd be pissed, you are the only child we had together, and he doesn't want to lose you." Was I going insane? Was mom sympathizing with dad. I mean yes she's done it before, but those moments were very few and far between if dad ever came up in a conversation. But something clicked in my mind what she had said, and it made me wonder if my parents despite their divorce, still cared about one another.

"Well that explains why he was so reluctant to put in that good word, and allow me to join the Marines." I replied, even though I already knew that. Still, it made more sense now.

"You see? And what did you do to your hair sweetheart?" I could not believe this.I was prepared for a heated argument, not this. I mean, here I was a 23 year old man armed to the teeth, and about to take on a potential vampire nest, and I was allowing my mom to fuss over the state of my hair. It was kind of embarrassing yes, but at the same time, it felt like the last conversation/argument we had, never took place, and in a way it felt kind of nice. "You kind of look like one of those characters in those shows you used to watch all the time. You know the ones with the spiked blond hair?"

Rocky started to laugh, but he shut up when I slugged him in the arm. "Ow! Jeez okay I get it!"

If anything else was going to be said in that moment, it never got the chance to be said. Pat came up to us at that moment, and from his expression, he meant business. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step back behind the police baricade now. We're going in. We're going to insert via the sewer entrances in that building, so it's gonna be close quarters. Fire only if you have a clear shot, and for the love of God, all of you be careful."

My mom nodded that she understood, but before we could join the rest of our team and Earl's team, my mom pulled me into one of those parental hugs that told me to be careful, right before she turned her attention to Matt and the few members of my team that were standing around the SUV. "Matthew, you watch out for my son. That goes for all of you. If anything happens to him-"

"Nothing's going to happen to him Ma'am," Matt replied matching my mom's serious tone. "Not as long as I'm around."

You remember when I said that I hated being right? Yeah, this was another one of those times. My theory proved true, and my team as well as 8 out of 9 of Earl's were sloshing through miles of sewer, and things I did not want to know about. Hell the arachnies smelled better than this. And here I thought that being in the shit was a figure of speech.

"Not much of a difference between being down here and the community up there." I scoffed, as we moved slowly through the sewer pipe. It was myself, Kai, Creed, Matt, Rocky, and several heavily armed MCB agents. When we had entered the sewer, Earl had told us to split into smaller groups, so it would be easier to move about the pipes, and potentially box in anything supernatural I got a few dry chuckles for my little joke.

It was quiet for some time after that, either nobody cold think of anything, or nobody wanted to say anything just in case we were getting close and didn't want to alert any potential threat that we were closing in on them. I didn't think much of it, until Creed who was taking point signalled for us to stop.

"Getting close, take a look." He turned his SCAR which had a small tac-light to the left side of the sewer pipe. I felt my blood chill, and a shudder went up my spine. The pipe wall was smeared in what could only be blood, and it wasn't just that side of the pipe wall. Creed moved his SCAR up and along the pipe from left to right. Blood was smeared along the pipe wall left, right, and center.

Now here's a little information about Matt. He's super religious, although you wouldn't think to look at him. He's got a bit of a nervous tick in that whenever he gets nervous, and I mean incredibly nervous, he starts either praying or quoting passages from the bible. "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about like a lion seeking whom he may devour."

"That's real comforting Matt." Rocky said, somewhere behind me and to my right. "That's not freaking me out at all."

I was about to comment, when Rocky screamed. I whirled around, and saw him sunk waist deep in sewer water. Thinking, something had grabbed him and was pulling him under, I grabbed onto one of his arms, and tried to haul him back to his feet, but he was sinking into that shit water fast.

"Damn this son of a bitch is heavy!" Matt groaned, as he grabbed onto Rock's other arm, and an MCB agent grabbed Rock's tac-vest.

"Shit, he's slipping back! Christ man, what do you eat!?" I growled, as we continued to try and pull Rocky to his feet. Finally with a real nasty squelching sound, we succeeded in getting him to his feet.

"Rocky what the hell happened?" I asked, panting heavily. He only weighed about a buck-80, but he was heavier with all his gear on.

"I fell in a damn hole." He groaned, trying to fling off shit water from his hands. "Shit."

"Alright, everyone back on me and watch your footing. We're getting close." Creed said, although I swore he was trying to hide that he was holding back a laugh. We continued sloshing through the worst refuse to be excreted from the worst pieces of human excrement on the planet for another half mile, before the pipe sloped up and gave way to some sort of brick or cobblestone.

"Finally out of the shit." I said greatfully, although it would take hours to wash the smell off of my clothes, weapons, and armor, and even more time to wash the smell off of all of us.

"Any idea where we are?" Creed asked.

"Some sort of old cistern." I replied. "I think this runs right under Third Street and the old church on the east end of town, and considering the potential threat, that's kind of ironic."

"Kind of is, but we're going in the right direction." Creed said shining the tac-light on his SCAR on the sloping floor of the cistern. Like the walls of the sewer pipe behind us, it too was covered in blood. Which made me wonder just how many people this vampire had taken, and why nobody had noticed? And that's when I remembered, that this is the ass-end of New York, and nobody really gave a shit about the people here. I actually had to hand it to whoever this vampire had been (undead remember, they're no longer people after they've been bitten) they were pretty smart in setting up shop here.

"Right then, everybody converge on the east end. There's an old cistern with a big-ass blood trail that dollars to doughnuts leads right up to the nest." Creed spoke into his com.

"Alright Creed, hold your position we're on our way." Earl's voice cracked over the line, right before this creepy-ass growl echo from somewhere ahead of our position.

"Anyone feel like we can't afford to wait for backup?" Rocky asked, and I noticed that his face was as pale as it was a few days ago.

I swear to God, you could not make this next part up. Everyone both hunters and agents looked at one another, and almost like we had planned this all said the same thing. "Damn."

We made our way up the sloping cobblestone, or brick, or whatever the hell it was that made up the foundation of this cistern. I had thought that if we did end up encountering a vampire, that this was going to be bad. But nothing could have prepared me for what we would find on that day.

The cobblestone eventually leveled out into a space about the size of a football field, and I could tell that we were under the old church because there were those small spaces dug into the stone where they place the candles (I have no idea what they're called). And just like it was a couple of days ago in that office building, the whole space was packed with wights.

"Oh hell no." Matt, Rocky, and myself said at the same time. Once again, and you cannot make this up, the three of us raised our rifles in the same motion, and opened up on the horde of wights. As Creed, and Kai joined us a second later in hosing down the wights with their own weapons, I heard a strangled cry come from behind us. I seriously wish I hadn't turned around, but it was a good thing that I did.

Wights had come through the damned walls, and had taken down the MCB agents accompanying us. For those of you who don't know, wights have a paralyzing touch. Even a single poke from one of its fingers is enough to put you on your ass. And there were about a dozen wights about to sink their razor sharp teeth into the heavy MCB armor. Another thing about wights for those who don't know, their claws and fangs can and will rip through any armor in a matter of seconds. It's why wights are better off being engaged at medium to long range, because if you're in close proximity to one, and you don't know what you're doing, you are so dead."

"Hostiles on our six!" I called out. I couldn't use My rifle to take out the wights. They were on top of the agents, and if I took out one of the wights, I would end up killing an agent. Which would most certainly get MHI shut down, regardless of how much Agent Locke likes working with our company. It was becoming a habit, be dropping my rifle and allowing the sling to catch it, but that's exactly what I did. My right hand flew to my full-sized Sig, it cleared leather, and the laser sight painted a target on the nearest wight the second my right index finger touched the trigger.

The first three rounds from my Sig caught the closest wight in the head, turning the upper left portion of its skull into undead hamburger. In the split-second I saw that things head explode, I moved onto another target. I was aiming for its head like I had been with the first wight, but the first shot I fired missed, and caught the thing in the shoulder as the wight stood up, and focused its attention on me. It went down spinning in an almost comical 180, and its claws scratched a third's face pretty badly.

Two wights were hurt, but by no means were they out of the fight. I sighted on the wight with the scratched face, but I never got the chance to bring it down. Its face exploded when a trio of shots blew the things face apart. I chance a split-second glance to see who it was that stole my kill, and registered the profile of Terry Creed with one of his twin Glocks drawn, before putting down another wight, then another after that before my first magazine clicked empty. I hit the mag release, fished another out of my armor, and was ready to rock and roll when my Sig's slider came forward to chamber the first round in the new magazine. Eject, new mag, slider forward just like they taught us in training.

"Clear the room and stabilize the agents, we'll take care of this!" I was only vaguely aware of what Creed had said. I'd put three more silver .45 rounds into the wight that I had hit in the shoulder, and was on my third pistol mag by that time. More wights were pouring into the cistern, my guess was from the sewer. Either they were nesting there, or they were being pushed back. I was really hoping for the later option, good news is that we had passed the last agent that had been rendered immobile by the wights paralyzing touch. That meant I could transition back to my AR-15.

Creed had the same thought, and his SCAR's tac-light illuminated what looked to be at least a dozen or two more wights pouring in from the sewer. It wasn't an ideal place to use my ACOG scope, but fortunately for me I had a nice little RMR scope canted on my aformentioned ACOG. I canted my rifle 45 degrees, sighted on the nearest wight, and pulled the trigger. My AR-15 was the civilian model, meaning that it was single fire only, not that it bothered me in this situation. The AR-15 civilian model made a very good all-purpose battle rifle. And due to the fact that it was a high powered rifle, I was taking down wights 2 at a time (lucky shots maybe, but if you're in a particular situation like this don't look a gift horse in the mouth).

Like it had been when my magazines for my Sig clicked empty, it was mag release, new mag, slide forward, or in this case bolt forward. Now here's a little need to know about civilian rifles. The magazine on the majority of them cannot be removed, and replaced with another. Fortunately, Brian didn't sell those particular rifles at his store, so my particular AR-15 did have a magazine that could be swapped.

Creed and I slowly thinned out the horde, as we pushed the wights back to the sewer. When one of the wights fell back with a disgusting sounding splash, I knew we'd reached the sewer once again. We snapped up our rifles, as wights to our left hit the shit water as pieces of undead hamburger. We held our fire, waiting to see who it was that had joined the fight, right before another wight went stiff as a board and dropped back into the water. Creed turned his tac-light onto the wight, and we saw the hilt of a large khukri knife buried into the forehead of said wight.

"I only know two people who do that," Creed began, as more gunfire erased the last few wights. "And only one of them uses that kind of knife."

Seconds later, Alex, Clare, James, Dimitri, Thom, and another 10 agents sloshed into view. The elder of the two Morrison brothers walked over to the wight with the large knife in its head, and ripped the blade out. He flicked the large knife, in an attempt to get wight blood and shit water off of his blade, before placing it back into its sheath that was upside down on his left arm. "And I thought being in the shit was a figure of speech."

"You stole my line bro." Thom said. It looked like he was trying not to vomit, but then again I was trying not to vomit.

"Oops." Alex replied in a sarcastic tone, with a smirk to match his tone.

"Smartass." Clare scoffed, as she reloaded her SCAR PDW.

"Damn straight." Alex replied.

"Are they always like this?" I asked, and Creed nodded in response.

"All the time, but you get used to it." Creed replied.

"Um guys, you might want to get up here. We hit the supernatural jackpot here." Matt's voice said over the com line.

"Sounds like they found the coffins." Alex said.

"Well let's not keep them waiting," Creed began, "If one of those things comes out from its nap, they're not gonna want to be by themselves."

"Got that right." Alex replied, and a few seconds later, we were moving up the sloping cobblestone of the cistern.

We made it into that large space in the cistern a few moments later. The place had been cleared of wights, but there were still chunks of them lying around. The MCB agents that had been surprised by the wights and subsequently paralyzed by their touch, were propped up against a wall to our left, and they were slowly regaining use of their limbs. Several of the agents that had entered the sewer with Alex went to check on their comrades, as the rest of us made our way over to where Kai, Matt, and Rocky were.

Matt was right about one thing, we had hit the supernatural jackpot. There wasn't one, or two coffins cleverly tucked into the wall of the cistern. No, there were three. Three coffins, and we had only managed to take out one vampire. Don't get me wrong, taking out a vampire is a commendable feat in and of itself. But when you find three coffins in the vicinity where you dealt with a vampire several days ago, it tends to kind of dilute the victory.

"Alright, either we hold up and wait for everyone else, or we open these things, and steak the two fangs left in there." Creed said, drawing a sharpened oak steak from somewhere behind his back.

I mirrored him by drawing my katana. What with all the gear I had, there was no room left for any steaks to be placed on my armor. Not that Pat had seen a problem with that. He was a firm believer in the steak and chop method that every hunter learned during their training. One person steaks said undead creature, someone else chops their head off. "So what's the call here?"

"Crack 'em open." Alex barked, and I heard the action of a pump gun cycle, before Matt and Rocky pried the first coffin open.

It was empty, which must have meant that coffin belonged to the blond vampire that Alex had put his arm through. But that meant we had two more coffins that were occupied. Once again, Matt and Rocky pried the coffin open, and this one was occupied by a male who looked like he was in his late 20's. Or at least that coffin was occupied by that person until his head rolled across the cistern floor, and his body collapsed with Creed's oak steak embedded in that vampire's chest. One down and one to go, and I just couldn't shake this ominous feeling I had for some reason when Matt and Rocky pried open the third coffin. It was empty. And somehow I just knew It was going to be. Everyone including me started in surprise when the coffin turned to be empty.

"Alright, this isn't good." Alex said, as everyone lowered their weapons. "Earl, Pat, we have three coffins in here. We've dispatched one hostile without much trouble, but two coffins are empty. Suspected the vampire we dealt with several nights before occupied one of those coffins, but we still have one vampire on the loose down here."

"Is there any other place for those things to go?" Earl's voice asked over the com.

"There's a set of stairs that lead up somewhere." Alex replied.

"Those lead up to the basement of the old Third Street church," Matt said, "The place has been closed for years. Boarded up, and falling apart. Could be the perfect spot for a vamp to hide out."

"They lead up to an old church on Third Street. It's boarded up and falling apart." Alex relayed what Matt had told him over the com line.

"Alright then, Martin my team and the rest of your team will surface and link up with Grant outside the church. We got the son of a bitch cornered, now let's finish it off."

Pat groaned over the line. "Do we really have to link up with Jefferson? I hate working with his useless ass."

"So does Owen, but as it is Martin, you don't really have a choice in the matter." Earl replied over the line.

"Some distain for an MCB agent?" Rocky asked a few seconds later.

"Long story." Alex replied.

"Short version then?" Rocky asked.

Alex opened his mouth to reply, but Clare cut him off. "Grant was part of Earl's team. The guy talked a big game, thinking he was basically the greatest thing since sliced bread. Anyways, during the Cursed One Incident, he gets himself kidnapped and enthralled by a vampire."

I shrugged, because I didn't think that it was very fair for the team to think this guy was useless just because a high-ranking vampire had gotten the best of him. But no time to think about that right now, we had a vampire to deal with. And we had the thing boxed in. An animal backed into a corner is a dangerous one, especially a supernatural apex predator like a vampire. That odd feeling that something was about to happen, as half of my team and the MCB agents scended the stone stairs that lead from the cistern, and into the basement of the church.

"Matt, if you're about to start praying again, please don't." Rocky said, and I heard Matt's voice cut off mid-syllable.

That odd feeling I had only increased when we entered the basement of the church. There were candles all around the basement, which was where our source of illumination came from. Not the oddest thing to find in a church yes, but It gets weirder. On the far side of the church's basement, there was a large canopy bed surrounded by candles. From my point of view the whole thing looked sort of like a scene from a real cheesy romance movie, and I just found myself thinking: What the hell are vampires doing with a canopy bed and a shit-ton of candles? I shook my head, deciding that I never wanted to know that … Unfortunately, that was just not in the cards today.

"Jimmi, you might want to come and take a look at this." From Matt's tone, whatever it was it did not sound good at all.

"What's up?" I asked, my tone matching just how uneasy I felt about the whole situation. On the opposite side of this whole creepy candle filled room, was where Matt had called me to, and I sorely wished he hadn't. There was, well my best description of what I was looking at was some sort of shrine. But wait, this gets weirder. There were pictures everywhere on this shrine, and all of them were of me.

"Oh shit." I said, as I felt my blood chill. I only knew of one person who would be obsessed with me to this level, and if they were a vampire (and all evidence pointed to it) this was not good news. But it did explain the canopy bed, the candles, and why I felt so uneasy about this whole thing. I felt a shudder go up my spine, right before something hit me in the chest.

It felt like I was hit in the chest by a charging bull. Stars erupted in front of my eyes, in all shades of pretty colors. I was only vaguely aware of the sound of overlapping gunfire, as that was a real powerful shot in the chest I just took. Still, when I was able to get to my feet after blinking away the pretty colored stars in front of my eyes, I saw Thom, Alex, and Kai with their backs to me firing in the direction towards the shrine dedicated to me. Not wanting to be left out of the fight, I raised my rifle, and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. Confused, I pulled the trigger again, and again nothing happened. I chanced a glance at my AR-15, and found that the barrel, and receiver hand been shattered. "Oh you bitch!"

I unslung the rifle, removed my scope, and tossed the destroyed rifle aside. It was a real shame as that had been the first rifle I had ever owned, but now with what that bitch had done to it, it was pretty much useless now.

Now was mad. I loved that rifle, now it was gone. Fortunately I had brought my Saiga with me, and while it wasn't the monster that Milo had given to Owen, this shotgun still packed one hell of a punch. I reached behind me to pull the Russian shotgun around to bring it to bear. My hand had just closed around the Saiga's handle, when she got around Kai, Thom, and Alex, and got right in my face.

This confirmed our third target was who I thought it was. It also confirmed what I thought about the candles, the bed, obviously the shrine, and especially the odd feeling I had about this whole follow-up of Alex's. My ex-girlfriend smiled in a way that sent a chill down my spine. It was a smile that could only be given by the supernatural's most dangerous predator. And she managed to show off those razor sharp incisors in the same smile. "Hello James."

"Cassandra, why am I not surprised?" I tried making my voice as cold as I could. Cassandra had been my girlfriend from my freshman to senior year in high school, and she was a serious yandere. For those of you who don't know what that is, a yandere is a certain character in some anime's that seem sweet and sugary on the outside. But once they become affixed to a certain person, who is normally the main character of said anime, they are not above the most heinous acts known to humankind to end up being with that person. You want an example of a yandere, look at Yukako Yamagashi from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, or Yuno Gassai from Mirai Nikki. Add to the fact that on top of her being a yandere, Cassandra was also a grade-A stalker (another yandere trait yes, but she took that shit to a whole other level that I don't want to get into), and she was seriously obsessed with the supernatural. Guess it only made sense that she became a vampire.

"James, don't even think about it," Cassandra snarled. I guessed she knew I was going for my Saiga.

"I don't need to." I replied, as Kai, Thom, and Alex had their weapons trained on my ex. Matt, Rocky, Creed, Clare, James, and Dimitri as well as the 20 other MCB agents followed soon behind.

"If any of you move, I'll kill him!" Cassandra snarled, as her fingers closed around my throat in an iron vice ice cold grip. It wasn't strong enough to choke me, but tight enough that if she wanted to, she could easily snap my neck.

"You let him go right now, or you're a dead woman." Matt Snarled leveling his FAL.

"I'm already dead Matthew," Cassandra replied, turning her attention to him, "drop your weapons or all of you will be dead as well including James."

"You're not gonna kill him, you're obsessed with him!" Matt spat back.

"Oh I'll easily fix that. Once you're all dead, I can make James into a vampire like myself, and we'll spend eternity together." Cassandra replied, and her tone seemed almost dreamy. Obsessive stalker yandere I had to remind myself, as my right hand slowly let go of my Saiga, and reached for something else.

"You'll never get that chance!" Matt snarled. "Now you put him down, or I'll but you down!"

"No Matthew, you put your weapons down or I will-AHHHHHH!" Cassandra screamed, as my katana sliced her right arm off at the shoulder. Cassandra clutched the stump that was once her arm, still howling in pain when I set the edge of my katana along her neck.

"Can you really do it James?" Cassandra asked, seemingly forgetting about the pain of having her entire arm sliced off. Something that made me real nervous, as vampires have an insane regenerative ability. "You found me beautiful once."

"Honey, you got real ugly." I snarled, right before my katana took my ex's head off.

"You alright James?" Matt asked, as I placed my blade back in its scabbard.

"In the twenty years that we have been friends, not once have you ever called me James." I replied, more shocked at what my best friend had just done than realizing that my ex was a vampire.

"What's your point?" He asked.

"Don't do it again … Ever." I replied.

"You got it brother. And sorry about your rifle. I know you put a lot of love into it."

"It's alright, just let me look through your collection of Guns n' Ammo for a replacement when we get back. Gotta find a replacement and all." I replied, feeling better now that this particular job was over.

My family, as well as Matt's (who weren't as miffed about Framboise as Matt had thought) avoided the entire team, including Earl's when we got back. I mean we were trudging through the sewers of Fulton for God knows how long. Even Peratas wouldn't go near us until every last one of us had showered and changed clothes. I made a point of ditching the ones I had worn when I went into the sewer, I'd buy new clothes later.

I must have spent hours in my shower, at least that's what it had felt like before I was browsing through Matt's stash of gun magazines. I went through about half of his three foot high stack (guy hoards gun magazines like they're Playboy) before I saw the one I wanted.

Fortunately Intimidator was still open when my Mustang pulled into the lot. The bell rang as I pushed the shop door open, and as usual Brian was behind the counter. "Oh Jimmi, what brings you here?"

"I lost my rifle. The first one you sold me." I replied, as I approached the plexiglass pistol display counter Brian was standing behind.

"Bummer man, that fifteen was a reliable rifle." He said shrugging. "So you want a replacement?"

"Actually, I wanted to place an order." I replied smirking as I knew what I was about to order was going to knock him off his feet.

"Alright, well it's a few months until Christmas, but I can deliver your wishlist to Santa himself." Brian replied matching my smirk. "So name your poison."

"The LWRC REPR."


	11. Chapter 11

I don't know if Brian had some sort of in with whoever he sent the order to for my REPR, or if Agent Locke had gotten wind of my order, but I was by no means expecting my rifle to arrive in Brian's shop as soon as it did. I was in awe when Brian set the rifle in front of me. I'd gone with the 20 inch barrel set with a Surefire MB556 compensator. The scope was a Vortex PST 1-4x24 held on with a Lerou quick release scope mount, I'd also decided to go with the Harriss bipod, and had the same RMR sight that was on the scope of my old AR-15 (I still missed my AR-15) canted on a 45 degree angle on the Vortex scope's right hand side. The trigger job as well as the grip were the same as both my Galil and Seiga. But probably my favorite part of this REPR was something I hadn't requested. Someone had painted an elongated skull on both sides of the rifle's stock. The Punisher's emblem. The one good thing Cassandra ever did for me, was help me pay for this beauty of a rifle.

"I have got to test this beauty," Matt groaned reverently when I got back to the compound with my new rifle, "I need to test this beauty."

"Paws off greedy man, if anyone fires the first round out of this beauty, it'll be me." I replied, holding my new REPR like a little kid who doesn't want to share their favorite toy.

It was right about that time that Terry Creed entered the armory, gave a whistle of appreciation at the REPR before telling us to assemble our gear. Pat had gotten that call from Sheriff Baird, to which he had assigned Creed to assemble a team and head out to the Adirondacks.

So there we were on a horribly cold and unbelievably rainy September afternoon, about to head into a thick-ass forest to find some werewolf that may or may not be holed up in New York's version of Runsten Parr's cabin. I missed the werewolf pack that wanted my head on a stick, and I really can't believe that I said that.

"Switch to your marksman vest, and bring out your new toy. It's time to break that baby in."

"Don't say 'break it in' Terry, that's how I lost my last rifle." I replied, switching out my CQC vest for my marksman vest. Milo had been very careful with my Uzi, which I had brought along on this particular job. He and the rest of Earl Harbinger's team had since gone back to Alabama since we had dealt with my ex. He promised that he'd get to work on the Iron Hand Uzis the second he got back to MHI's main compound.

"Alright, I want to play this safe," Creed addressed all of us as he assessed an assortment of rifles he'd brought with him. All of them were SCARs, and I recognised the one he'd brought into Fulton's sewer system. Another was a PDW variant like Clare's, and the third and last SCAR he'd brought had been converted to serve as a marksman rifle. He chose to run with the marksman and PDW SCAR. "Everyone takes a marksman rifle or if you can manage it, a sniper rifle, and a backup incase this thing charges."

"Creed, I'm going with you." Baird said stepping up to our temporary team lead.

"Like hell you are." Creed growled.

"Like hell I'm not," Baird growled back. "You're in my county, that wolf took my officers, and I want to see the face of the son of a bitch that did this. I signed up to protect this place, and I made the mistake of not calling you right away. So I'm making up for it right now, and if this thing kills me, I'll make sure to go down fighting, and I'll have answered for all those people and my officers that I basically let this wolf kill."

"Well I'm sold." Isabelle nodded in satisfaction.

Creed rolled his eyes, and sighed in (iritated) resignation. "Fine, we don't have any spare armor though Sheriff. You're screwed if that wolf transforms."

"Doubt it will though," Isabelle replied, while Creed might have been the team lead, Isabelle was the more experienced hunter. "It's not the full moon. It won't be as strong, plus if it does decide to transform, because it's not the full moon the transformation will take even longer."

"About the only good news in this Godawful shitty mess." Baird sighed, as Isabelle handed him an M14, and a spare UMP with a chest rig with loaded with spare magazines for both weapons. "Come on, there's a trail that leads up to the old cabin."

The forest was if you could believe this, even worse than being in the open. The rain came down in fucking sheets. I hated both the rain and the snow, but right now I seriously hated the rain. Even through my armor I was drenched, and it was slow going as Sheriff Baird led us into the forest.

"Hold up here." Baird said over the heavy rainfall. "The cabin is about a hundred yards away in a small clearing."

"Alright, let me think for a second." It was silent for a few minutes, except for the rain coming down off of the trees. I would be so happy once this wolf was dead. "Alright, I got an idea. We're gonna split up and surround the cabin. Keep to the edge of the clearing, if the wolf is in that cabin we don't want it spotting us."

"And we're supposed to what? Pop it in the head if it shows up in one of the windows?" Rocky asked.

"Yeah actually," Creed began, "We surround the cabin, two of us go in and try to get the wolf to in sight in one of the windows. Whoever has the shot at the time, you take it."

"I like it, but it still puts whoever is going into that cabin at a real big risk, assuming the wolf is even in there." I said, brushing my hair that was plastered to my skin by now out of my eyes.

"We'll go with this plan for now Jimmi, if our that wolf isn't in there, I'll think of something else." Creed replied, as he wrung water out of his cap, before putting it back on. "Or you'll probably think of something."

I shut up and took the compliment as we slowly advanced towards the cabin. Like a few weeks before when we were in the sewer system in Fulton, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen. I reminded myself that we were on a hunt, so something was _definately_ going to happen. The questions were what, where, and when was it going to happen?

The cabin wasn't as run down as I had thought. Someone (Our werewolf probably) was fixing the place up. Probably wanted a decent place to stay in between transformations. It was a smart choice going with the abandoned and supposedly haunted cabin in the middle of the woods that the locals were too freaked out to go anywhere near.

"So who's going in?" I asked as I once again brushed my hair out of my eyes. It needed a serious cut, but at the same time, I kinda liked it. Or at least I would have if it grew down and not out.

"I am." Sheriff Baird said setting the borrowed M14 against the trunk of a tree, and transitioning to one of the UMPs from one of our SUVs. "Like I said before: my county, my problem, my mistake, my chance to rectify it."

"I'm going in with you then." Creed said, mirroring Sheriff Baird's action, and setting the SCAR he'd converted into a marksman rifle against the same tree trunk. "I'll keep my com open. Everyone else, take up positions around the cabin. If we're not out in fifteen minutes, or if we don't back the wolf into your sites, you come in after us. If you find the wolf, shoot him, if either of us have been bitten, shoot us, and if you find us standing in the basement facing the corners... "

"We get it Terry." Isabelle said. "You two be careful in there."

I couldn't shake that uneasy feeling, as I set my REPR on a fallen log a small ways inside the forest. I was covering the front left side of the cabin, and despite the rain, I could see Terry and Sheriff Baird enter the cabin. I pulled back my left sleeve, and set the timer on my watch for 15 minutes. I slowly flicked my REPRs safety off with my right thumb, and waited either for Creed and Sheriff Baird to back the wolf into my line of sight, to come out with the job finished, or for the time on my watch to run out, which meant we roll in guns blazing.

The minutes ticked by slowly. I heard everything on Creeds end, because he kept his com open. No sign of the wolf in the basement from what I heard over the line, and they hadn't been jumped and forced to face the corners. Five minutes to go, and the first landing had been cleared. I still couldn't shake that uneasy feeling. With two minutes to go, that's when things got interesting.

" _Shavers!?"_ That must have been Sheriff Baird. " _It was you the whole time?"_

" _The whole time Sheriff."_ Deputy Shavers' voice said with a serious bite to it. " _Do you want to know why? Williams and Grissom were always screwing around either on or off duty, leaving me with all their God damned paperwork. Wilkins? Oh don't even get me started on that royal prick! Never a moment's peace when he was around! And he was always around!"_

" _Well that explains that."_ Creed said over the line. His voice came in more clearer than Baird's or Shavers'. Then again it was Creed's com. " _But you killed fifteen civilians, three officers, and a team of hunters, so you gotta die."_

Shavers made a sound halfway between a laugh and a growl over Creed's line. " _You really think that you two can take me out!? I already killed the last group of hunters to come after me, right before I killed Wilkins. What makes you think that you have any chance against me!?"_

My REPR fired its first shot into and through both the window on the cabin's top floor, and former Deputy Shavers' skull. I saw the former officer go rigid, as if he knew for the last split-second of his life what had happened, then he collapsed to the ground.

" _Because I'm not stupid, and I brought backup."_ Creed said over the line.

"Should have brought some marshmallows." Matt said as the cabin with former Deputy Shavers corpse burned to its foundations. "Could have made smores."

"We have the sample for the MCB," Creed began, and we all sighed in relief when the rain stopped. "About damn time the rain let up. Alright, now we can get out of this forest, and get back to the compound."

Not five minutes on our way home from Sheriff Baird's county, Creed's phone which he had left in the SUV he had driven out here began ringing. Creed answered and put whoever it was on the other line on speaker. "Pat, what's up?"

" _Terry listen, there's a situation developing out in Cato. Team priority. Get all the weapons and ammo you can once you get back to the compound, and lock it down once you leave."_ The line went dead when Pat hung up, and everyone grabbed the Oh Shit handles in the SUV when Creed's foot became parelell with the floor of the large vehicle.

We made it back to the compound somewhere around 6:30. We piled out of the vehicles and headed straight for the compound's armory. I had a few things in the SUV, the majority were in the trunk of my car (Milo had sent me a copy of Iron Hand Chad's memoirs, and I was following a few examples he set including storing a small armory in my trunk), and I had a couple more weapons I had stored in my room within the compound, so that's where I headed first. I quickly stripped off my armor, as well as the clothes under the armor. No way I was going back out there with clothes that were still soaking wet. I threw them into a corner making a note to take care of them once whatever was going on in Cato was finished.

Once I had a fresh set of clothes, and my armor back on, I took another katana from the rack I had installed on one wall in my room in the compound. I'd made a point in finding and ordering more three soul blades (gotta love the internet). I would have used the blade that my old sensei had given me, but it needed sharpening since I had used it to take my ex's head off. And that right now was time I did not have. There are two types of people in this world. Those who say that katanas are over-rated Japanese blades, and those who have used a katana to behead their yandere psycho vampire ex-girlfriend. The one I selected took a shit ton of time to find. It's name was Ame No Habakiri, meaning Slash of Heavenly Wings. With a fresh set of new clothes, and new and very sharp and very deadly katana, I was ready to roll. Right up until my dad stopped me as I headed back towards the armory.

"What's going on James?" He asked in a serious/worried tone.

"There's a situation unfolding in Cato," I replied honestly. Dad knew about the supernatural, so there really wasn't any need to keep secrets from him, "I honestly don't know what it is, but it has to be pretty big if Pat wants everyone out there. The compound is going on lockdown once we're gone, so nothing'll get in without Pat's access code, or someone else on the team undoes the lockdown from inside the compound."

"Right, I'm going with you," Dad replied, "If nothing's getting in once you leave, then I'm coming with you."

"I'm going too." Tony said running up to us,having heard the conversation.

"Like hell you are!" Both dad and I said at the same time.

"Why not!?" Tony almost whined, "I know how to shoot!"

"But you have no formal training." I countered. "Tony out there, there a lot of variables to consider. The biggest ones are the type of creature you're up against, and how well you aim under stress. And trust me Tony, in any situation involving hunting the supernatural, there is always stress. Not to mention the fact that you're sixteen. And if shit hits the wall, and we lose someone, which is a high possibility in this business, it's not gonna be you. Not today."

I unstrapped the galco rig that held my baby Sig, and handed it to my younger step-brother. "You're a good shot little brother, and this is for a just in case scenario. If anyone comes in here that isn't anyone on our team…"

"I get it, nobody'll get past me if they're not on the team." Tony said.

There are a couple ways to get to Cato, all of which go through the towns of both Jordan and Elbridge. I don't really know streets. I go more by landmarks, so thank God for GPS and a fast car. Oh, probably should have mentioned that I wasn't in one of the team SUVs. Nope, I was cruising or rather racing along in my Mustang wondering what we were up against, when I slammed on my brakes. One of the team SUVs was parked in the middle of the street, blocking the road in both directions. Dimitri was lying prone on the roof of the vehicle, firing at whatever was unfortunate enough to be in sight of the Dragunov in the big Russian's hands.

"Son of a bitch! Who taught you to drive!?" Matt groaned, as he slumped back in the passenger seat. "Oh thank God for these seatbelts."

"Oh quit being such a pussy." I said unbuckling my seatbelt, and reaching for my REPR in the back seat. Whatever Dimitri was taking shots at either wasn't dying, or there were more than one of whatever it was. Either way, I was going to get more use out of my REPR today than one shot. I took up a position on the driver's side of the SUV Dimitri had gone prone on top of. I mirrored him, after setting up my rifles bipod and saw a horde of zombies shuffling their way towards us.

"Well this is going to be fun." I said, flicking the safety off of my REPR, and sighting on the nearest shambler. I watched its head explode a split-second after I pulled my rifle's trigger. I half wondered who or what had raised all these zombies as I dropped the one after another. Voodoo priestess, Necromancer, Papa Shango. Those were the big ones, and they had to be in the area. I'd made a mental note that we had to find who or whatever it was that had raised the dead. We had to put them down before this situation got out of hand. Of course, if it did get out of hand it would be a while. Cato really isn't anything much but fields and farmland.

My magazine clicked empty, and I fished in my vest for another one. Dimitri's Dragunov discharged and hit the nearest shambler closer to the right side of its neck. The zombie's head flopped onto its left shoulder, but it still kept coming forward. I heard Dimitri curse in Russian, and his next shot vaporized the zombie's head. I took the head off of the Zombie that shambled up to take the place of the zombie that Dimitri had just beheaded with his Dragunov.

"Hostiles on our six!" Matt yelled from behind me, and I heard his FAL chirp, as he began dropping hostiles. I rotated 180 degrees, and nearly shit my pants. They weren't just on our six, they were right on top of us. We'd completely neglected to check our six in haste to join the fight. Thank God Matt had thought about that. There was no need to aim, not at this range anyway. I raised my new REPR and pulled the trigger. The zombie's head like its fellows vaporized. The next one crawled over its fallen comrade to get to me, but hadn't counted on having its eyes blown out the back of its head by a full-sized Sig Sauer 220.

"Oh you know what? Fuck this!" I growled, holstering my sidearm, and setting aside my REPR. The zombies continued shuffling forward on Dimitri's six position, as I drew Ame No Habakiri from its scabbard. The closest zombie met its end when Ame No Habakiri sliced the top half of its head off. I went down from right to left, then returned in an upwards diagonal strike going left to right slicing another zombie in half at the shoulder, then taking off its head with the second strike. I turned the blade in my hand, and stabbed behind me, catching the third zombie in the abdomen. Retracting it, my second strike took the zombie's head.

Zombie blood splattered on my face, when Matt dropped one Zombie that had gotten way too close for his comfort. I took the next zombie out with a one-handed swing just to irritate Matt. He was one of those people who thought Katanas were over-rated, but I think that one-handed swing shut him up, and I think made him want to try using one of my blades. Sorry Matt, get your own.

One last zombie to go, before I could switch back to using my REPR. Matt had called dibbs, but I was better with a blade, than Matt was with his beloved FAL, and I proved that when I bisected the zombie vertically. "Damnit Jimmi, I said it was mine!"

"Gotta be quicker than that." I replied, flicking blood off of Ame No Habakiri, before wiping it down as best I could given the circumstances.

A large explosion made the both of us whirl around. I raised Ame No Habakiri, at the same moment Matt brought his FAL to bear. What we saw was a gant plume of dirt that shot about 60 feet into the air, and the both of us ducked, as bits of zombie rained down on our heads.

"What the hell was that!?" I asked, as what looked like what was left of an arm landed at my feet.

"Claymore." Dimitri replied, "I set them up along the sides of the road, just in case."

"What about the position behind you" I asked looking up at the large Russian, who was still taking pot shots at the slow moving horde of undead flesh.

"Already triggered, and there was no time to go and plant more." Dimitri replied, as he beheaded another zombie with the last shot in his Dragunov's magazine. "Where is everyone else?"

"About ten minutes behind." I replied, placing my katana back in its scabbard and picking up my REPR. "A big heavy SUV can't compete with a 'Sixty eight Mustang."

Dimitri nodded, and blasted another zombie head off. He really did not like to talk, all though he was smiling for some odd reason. Guess the guy really liked it when he shot something in the head. I didn't really ask, I just went back to braining more zombies on Dimitri's 6.

By the the time Creed and the rest of the team arrived with my dad Mr. Reese to both Matt and my surprise, both fields on either side of the road we were on had been cleared to the point where you could casually stroll into the fields, and pop zombies in the head with your sidearm. Which is what Matt and I were doing when the rest of the team arrived. Well Matt was using his sidearm, I was using my Uzi after I retrieved it from my Mustang's trunk. Don't judge me, up close and personal, nothing with the exception of a shotgun beats an Uzi.

"Gonna leave anything for us?" Rocky said, leaning against the hood of my Mustang.

"Do me a favor, and get your ass off my car's hood." I replied reloading my subgun.

"Value your car much?" Rocky asked, moving off of my car.

"His grandfather left it to him in his will." My dad explained. He was outfitted with an M4, and a Beretta 6F that fired .40 S&W. "He practically treats that car like his first born."

"So where's everyone else?" Creed asked, as Dimitri jumped down from the SUV he had previously taken up a prone position on top of.

"Up the road. It was practically crawling with hostiles." The big Russian replied. "There's another team that is close by. They are on their way."

"How long?" He asked.

"They won't get here soon enough." Matt said, turning his eyes to the sky. I followed his gaze, and saw something silhouetted against the moon that looked like the old Batman symbol.

"Oh shit!" Creed swore, turning his attention skyward, and raising his SCAR. "GARGOYLE!"


	12. Chapter 12

The silhouette that was the gargoyle tucked its wings and dove towards us. Several of us opened fire on the gargoyle, but for all the damage those bullets did, everyone might as well have been firing BB guns. Plus I think we were just making the thing mad.

"EVERYBODY DOWN!" Creed yelled, and we all dove for cover not a split-second before the gargoyle slammed into the SUV that Dimitiri had used for a perch. Ever see what a sledgehammer does to a soda can? Well that gargoyle being a stone behemoth, did _exactly_ that to the SUV.

I scrambled to my feet, not even registering that I had gotten my Mustangs trunk open, but the next thing I knew, I was fishing though the trunk looking for a weapon with enough kick to bring down that gargoyle.

"Fire in the hole!" I yelled, leveling a 6-cylinder grenade launcher at the gargoyle that was attempting to extract itself from the wreckage of the SUV it had slammed into. The first shell sent the SUV and the gargoyle spinning down the street. The second and third, as well as the fourth made sure that gargoyle did not get up. Hell there was nothing left of either the SUV or the gargoyle by the time I'd fired the fourth 40mm shell.

"Dude, talk about overkill!" I think that was Matt. I was too occupied laughing like an evil maniac at the large fireball that was the mangled wreckage of the SUV and the gargoyle I'd blasted to hell.

"Keep the change ya filthy animal." I cackled madly. Hey you would laugh like that too if you had just blasted a gargoyle away like that.

"You keep firepower like that in your trunk James?" Dad asked. I could tell he was amused at the sight even over my Joker-like laughter.

"You don't?" I asked, as I realized that I was following in Iron Hand's footsteps. If Milo has published Chad's memoirs, then you'll understand.

" _What the hell was that?"_ Pat said over the com line.

"Just a little gargoyle barbeque Pat." Creed replied. "We're short one SUV though."

" _Shit did you say gargoyle-GET THE FUCK OFF ME!"_ Everybody winced, when Pat screamed into his com, and winced again when a rather long burst of gunfire sounded over the line. " _Great that means we have a high-powered vampire on top of all the zombies, and whoever raised these fugly sons of bitches to deal with."_

"So what's the play here boss?" Creed asked.

" _There's a cemetery to the east. Check that place out while we deal with the shamblers here."_

"What about the ETA on the incoming team?" Isabelle asked.

" _They're inbound in five minutes."_ Pat said over the line, but nothing ever takes five minutes. Something that everyone on our small little squad my dad and Mr. Reese included made a not of voicing.

"Boss for those of us who are bad with directions, where is that cemetery in question?" I asked, speaking into my own com.

" _Down the road you just came, first crossroad you come to. Take a right, and it's a few miles up the road."_ Pat replied over the line.

"Thanks boss." I said, tossing the launcher back into my trunk. Yes the safety was on, I'm not stupid enough to blow up my own car by doing something incredibly stupid like that. I slammed the trunk shut, got back into the driver's seat, and Matt and I were rolling down the road we had just come down. I think I was doing about 110 or 120 when we came to that intersection. Now you can drift with Mustangs, it's just really difficult. Must have been why Matt was grabbing the Oh Shit handle on the passenger side of my car when I drifted around that intersection.

"You're gonna get pulled over driving like that!" He yelled.

"Given the situation, no cop would dare pull me over." I replied, aware of the red and blue lights flashing in my rearview group mirror. Either that officer had gotten a call from dispatch telling whoever was in that car do check out a disturbance in the local cemetery, or they was pissed off that they'd been cut off at an all way stop intersection by a red 1968 Mustang gong 100 plus.

"You're not gonna pull over are you?" Matt asked looking over his shoulder at the patrol car that was getting smaller as I pulled away from it.

"Nope." I replied, still smirking like an idiot from blasting that gargoyle to hell.

"How fast can this beauty go?" Matt asked, matching my manic smirk. The patrol car's flashing lights became smaller and smaller, when I put my foot to the floor.

"Holy SHIT!" I slammed on my brakes when a wall of zombies appeared in my Mustang's headlights. The tires screeched, as I turned the wheel to the left. I thanked every deity in existence that my beloved car did not roll when I did that. My car came to a stop about 20 feet from the horde, with the passenger side door facing the wall of undead flesh.

"I'm kinda regretting that we took off like a bat outta hell." Matt said, as he quickly undid his seatbelt, and grabbed his shortened FAL. I mirrored him, grabbing my Uzi, and the both of us threw open the doors to my Mustang.

"No use crying over it now." I said, as the two of us opened up on the slowly advancing wall of undead flesh. I was firing in semi-auto, because I'd run out of ammo way too fast if I just unloaded my Uzi's magazine into the horde, despite the small armory I had in the trunk.

"I can't even see the cemetery, can you?" Matt asked as his suppressed FAL chirped.

"No, but there might be some good news with that." I replied, catching a zombie in the knee, then popping it in the head when it's leg gave out. I repeated the process several more times, as I continued speaking. "With all these zombies, who or whatever raised them is more than likely in that cemetery."

"Alright then," Matt began as he reloaded his FAL, and went back to work on the horde, "but what about the potential vampire threat? Sure we got lucky when you blasted away that gargoyle, but what happens when that vamp really makes its presence known?"

"One problem at a time." I replied, firing the last round in my Uzi magazine. I hit the release, and fished in my tac-vest for a fresh magazine as the empty mag clattered to the asphalt.

"Oh speaking of problems, Sheriff Rosco just showed up." I rolled my eyes, but Matt was right. The patrol car that we'd cut off a short while ago came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road a few feet behind us. The good news was that it better illuminated the zombie horde, the bad news was that chances were high that cop was going to aim his service issue Glock at the two of us instead of the horde of undead flesh illuminated by his patrol car's headlights.

Remember I hate being right sometimes. This particular time was one of those. I think the officer in that car had some serious tunnel vision. I don't think he even registered the zombies in the road. Nope, the driver's side door of that patrol car opened, and it turned out she started screaming for us to get on the ground.

"Aiming that weapon the wrong way." Matt said in a nonchalant tone, as he reloaded his FAL once again.

"You fire that weapon, and I will drop you!" She growled, as her left index finger touched the trigger of her sidearm. I thought it was interesting that she was left-handed, but that was by no means the most pressing issue right now.

"You better check your aim officer." Matt replied cheekily. "If you fire that thing, you're gonna miss me by a foot number one. Number two, why don't you take a quick look at what we're shooting at."

The officer's eyes widened almost like a deer in the headlights, and her service Glock lowered as her arms went slack. "Oh my God…"

"Now she gets it." I said rolling my eyes, as I reloaded my Uzi I wondered where Creed and everyone else was. They couldn't be too far behind, I mean hell those SUVs can go about 140 so they should get here relatively soon.

"Jimmi, I think we're gonna have to pull back." Matt said, as he once again reloaded his FAL. I'd dropped about 18 shamblers, and I think Matt's kill count was somewhere in the 20's. 30 plus zombies down, but they were still shuffling towards us. The zombies had closed the distance to about 10 feet away from my Mustang, and the thing with zombies is you do not under any circumstances want to get surrounded and swarmed. You're fucked if you do, because you're either food or a soon to be member of the walking dead.

"They are not touching my car!" I growled in response. I still had two shells in the launcher, but at that range the explosion would do some serious damage to my car, and that was by no means acceptable in any way. My dad was right, I really did treat my car like my first born.

"Hey sweetheart, you wanna fire that weapon of yours?" Matt asked, turning his attention to the cop, but she was curled up and cowering inside her squad car. Not everyone can handle situations like this.

It was right about then that two large SUVs pulled up on either side of the shell-shocked officer's car. I breathed a sigh of relief when the team that Creed had taken up to the Adirondacks plus my dad and Dimitri piled out weapons ready.

"You know, you remind me of myself when I first joined up." Thom said, fishing out a fresh magazine for his heavily customised Sig Elite. He had unloaded the sidearm into the hoard when he moved up to take a position by my car's trunk.

"How's that?" I asked, transitioning to my Saiga. I had the magazine loaded with deer slugs, for that extra kick you know? Thing is, I had forgotten that I had loaded the explosive deer slugs Milo had made into my Saiga (that's a whole other story which I'll get into later), at least that was until I watched a line of zombie head explode. Wanna know the extent of the damage Milo's custom slugs caused? Picture a watermelon that had 10 M80's placed inside it, and someone blew those little buggers up. Dangerous yes, but it was awesome (and admittedly a little disgusting) watching zombie skulls blasted into a billion tiny pieces by Milo's custom slugs.

"First off, that was awesome!" Thom half yelled/half laughed as another row of zombie heads were vaporised by my Saiga. "Secondly, and more to my point, is you guys are eager to please, and always ready for a fight."

"So does that mean something's changed between now and when you started?" Matt asked as yet another magazine from his FAL clattered to the ground, and he searched for another one.

"Nope, not a damn thing. I'm always ready for a fight." Thom replied, and the guy wasn't kidding. The youngest brother in the Morrison family was strapped. His primary was the highly customised EBR Matt had positively drooled over. His backup was like most of us on Pat's team a shotgun, which was a 6 cylinder Stryker pump-action. Thom's sidearm was holstered across his chest, and that was the custom Sig 220 Elite I mentioned earlier. He had 2 bladed weapons, his primary like Kai and myself being a katana, his backup was a little more exotic and unexpected, that being a World War I Jambiya dagger.

"So when do I get to test out your REPR?" Thom asked, canting his EBR to the side. I hadn't noticed that he'd placed a reflex sight on the side of his high powered scope. Facing down a horde of zombies, you tend to miss a few things.

"You'll need to get in line." I replied, after disintegrating another row of zombie heads. Maybe I should have led with the Saiga. Oh well, no use in complaining about it now. "Matt asked first, so he gets the first crack when I decide I'm ready to share."

"James you have to share with your friends." Dad said, covering me so I could reload my Saiga. Dad might be a trained marine, but he thought he was up against still living targets in that he thought body shots would drop zombies. Maybe I should have given him some pointers, but once again, no use in complaining about it now.

"I don't wanna." I replied, as I stood up to fire my shotgun. I decided to go with another magazine of explosive rounds, as they had worked so well before. "And dad, body shots are a no-go with zombies. You gotta aim for the head if you want to drop them."

"Your dad's been here _how_ long, and you haven't told him anything about how to deal with the supernatural?" Matt asked, transitioning to his Benelli after the magazines on his FAL ran dry.

"A little more focused on what's in front of us Matt." I replied. We were pushing the zombies back slowly, but I kept wondering when that other team was going to get here.

"Guys, not to be a downer, but is anybody else wondering when that new team is expected to… Hang on? Do you hear something?" I said, as the sound of what sounded like helicopter rotors reached my ears.

"Sounds like a heli, think it's the cavalry?" Matt asked.

"It better be." I replied, fishing another magazine out of my vest. "I'm running low on ammo here."

"You have a whole arsenal in that trunk of yours." Matt said, as the sound of the helicoptors rotors got closer. "And you're telling me that you're running low on ammo?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you-wait was that either of you?" A zombie among the slowly advancing horde went stiff as a board and dropped to the asphalt.

Matt, dad and Thom both shook their heads, right before another zombie dropped from another unknown gunman. The question was, was it someone from our team, someone from that helicoptor, or someone else covering our asses? More zombies dropped, and the two of us shared a look at one another, with the both of us jerking our heads in the direction of the horde at the same time. Low on ammo or not, we still had a job to do. Transitioning back to my primary weapon, I raised my Uzi, flicked the firing mode to fire on semi-auto, took careful aim, and started popping targets in the head.

Bad news, the undead horde while being pushed back was still a little too close for comfort, and I had two magazines left for my Uzi. Upside, that helicoptor was right above us. Chancing a glance up, the helicoptor seemed to be a Huey gunship hovering 30 feet above us. Ropes dropped down from either side of the gunship, and we became joined by 2, 4, 6 others dressed in heavy tactical gear not unlike Rennie, and they were armed armed with suppressed M4s and UMPs.

"Patrick Martin?" A male voice with a distinct rather deep British accent asked over the sound of the rotors. The speaker stepped forward, his face covered by some sort of tac-mask.

I shook my head. "James Woods. I'm one of the three new recruits to Pat's team. Our boss is a few miles that way." I gestured to somewhere behind the newcomer's right. "He sent us here to deal with a potential, and rather obvious problem."

"Just you lot for now then?" The man asked.

"For now, but there's another team on the way." I replied, as 5 of the 6 new comers opened fire in bursts on the horde. "And should be here any second. But in all honesty, we seriously owe you for saving our asses."

"Well, I'm Nigel Bliss. Van Hellsing Institute, and former Sergeant of Her Majesty's SAS." Nigel held his hand out, and I shook it, unsurprised by the man's strong grip. "Now what's the situation here?"

"There's only one place these zombies could have come from, and that's the local cemetery." Creed explained stepping up and Shaking Bliss' hand, while I popped my trunk, and switched out to my Galil. I had enough weapons and ammo in there to start a small war and win it. "Terry Creed, and Chances are high that who or whatever it was that raised these things is still in there. But as you can clearly see, it's going to be one hell of a fight in order to get there, even with your added firepower. Unless of course that heli of yours is armed."

"Jax, need you to clear a path" Bliss spoke into his com.

"Hey, tell your pilot not to damage my car." I said, as the Huey rose into the air to begin its gun run.

"Mind the car Jax. Yank down here doesn't want her hurt." Bliss said. I guessed the British hunters weren't on the same line as the rest of our team, because I couldn't hear what the pilot said, or if they had said anything.

I swore vehemently as a white-hot searing pain burned right by my collarbone on my left side. Good news was that it was just a stray shell that had slipped into my armor, but did it ever hurt like hell. "Oh son of a bitch that hurt!"

"Yeah, I know how bad that feels." Dad said over the sound of the Huey's guns. "I have the burn to prove that."

"Yeah, and it hurts like a son of a bitch." Creed said, rubbing his left hand close to the same spot on his collarbone where the shell had burned me. Guess it wasn't just me and dad then.

The Huey was about halfway down the street, when something barreled towards it. Jax must have seen it, as the Huey moved to avoid the creature. However Jax wasn't quick enough to fully avoid the gargoyle, as with a horrible grinding noise of stone on metal, the gargoyle had ripped off the Huey's left side door. Our weapons snapped up, and tracked the gargoyle as it turned to make another pass at the Huey, despite all of us knowing that we'd never kill that thing without a heavy explosive. I still had two shells left in my launcher, but that gargoyle was too far out of range. We needed a rocket launcher.

"Jax, get out of there!" Bliss yelled into his com, a split-second before the Huey exploded as a second gargoyle smashed into and through the Huey, splitting it in half. All of us watched in horror, as the bisected helicopter fell to the ground. The two halves impacted hard in a field to our left and rolled end over ends before the flaming wreckage came to a stop.

"JAX!" A British hunter screamed, right before they made to run towards the wreckage of the Huey. It took Rocky, Creed, and Bliss to pull him back.

"Wilkes, we can't do anything for her!" Bliss growled, as he restrained the panicked hunter, who continued to attempt to break free, and run towards the Huey's wreckage. The elated feeling I had from destroying the first gargoyle was now gone, to be replaced by horror at the sight of that gargoyle smashing into Jax's Huey. I felt the same way the other hunter, Wilkes felt. I wanted to make a break for the wreckage. I wanted to do something, anything to help Jax even if there was the slightest chance that she had survived that crash. "Hostiles are too close! We won't make it in time!"

"We can't just leave her!" Wilkes shouted in response, as both the horde and the two large gargoyles turned their attention to the Huey. I felt my stomach drop. If Jax was alive, she would get ripped to shreds. Wilkes was right, we couldn't leave Jax to that fate.

Apparently someone else shared the same sentiment, as right when the gargoyles landed a few yards away from the Huey's wreckage, two rockets disintegrated the stone behemoths. We all ducked when the rockets blasted the gargoyles into tiny bits.

"What the fuck was that!?" Several of us said at the same time. Our question as rewarded when a large souped up truck pulled up in the field to our left several yards away. There were two people standing in the flatbed, each of them holding a still smoking SMAW launcher. I recognised that truck, and one of the two men standing in the flatbed. I felt Matt nudge my arm. He obviously recognised the truck and its owner as well.

"You know, we probably should have seen that coming." Matt said, but there was no time to ponder that. With the gargoyles being eliminated, we had enough man and firepower to handle the zombies and recover Jax. God willing she was still alive.

I stowed my Uzi in the trunk of my car, and grabbed my Galil -as well as spare ammo-, as I felt like the rifle I'd purchased from Intimidator's wasn't getting enough attention. I bought this beauty specifically for hunting and killing the supernatural. Sure I had an Iron Hand special in the form of my Uzi, and my special ordered REPR, but like my old AR-15 being the first rifle I'd ever owned, my Galil was my first monster hunting rifle, and I'd be damned if it didn't see more action.

All of us made for the Huey's wreckage, dropping the zombies that had gotten to the wreckage before us. We spread about the front half of the Huey's wreckage in a wide semi-circle, weapons facing outward towards the slowly advancing horde that had diverted their attention to the wreckage.

"Oh Christ!" I think that was Wilkes. He and Bliss as well as Isabelle had climbed onto the Huey to assess what happened. Whatever had happened to Jax didn't sound good.

"Hold on, I'm going in." Isabelle said, and then a few moments later she called out from inside the cabin of the ruined Huey: "She's alive, but we can't move her."

"Alright then, stabilize from in there. We'll have to cut her out." Bliss said.

"Gonna be a long night." Matt said, right before the two of us froze in shock. A long drawn out howl rang out from seemingly all around us. "A real long night."


	13. Chapter 13

Update.

Hey guys, I'm still here, I'm still writing albeit slowly. I've been going trough a lot (namely a bout of some serious writer's block) over the past ... what's it been? A year? Two years? It sure feels like it. Anyways, I'm slowly making progress on my writings, and I'm planning on re-working Monster Hunter International: Encounters. Why you ask? I want to, and also because it needs a serious overhaul (polite way of saying that it sucks). So I plan on re-working that fic to have it feel more like what I wanted it to be, before I release another chapter of The Pack.

And to the people who read the other (decent) fics I've published, don't worry, I'll be working on new chapters for those too.

Thank's for bearing with me.


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